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Countries organizing international events should not take part in sanctions — senator

MOSCOW, July 1. /TASS/. Unimpeded organization of international events is possible only in the countries that do not take part in any sanctions and Finland’s experience testifies to this, believes Konstantin Kosachov, the chairman of foreign policy committee at the Federation Council, the upper house of Russian parliament.

"A conclusion one can draw from today’s scandal [Finland’s refusal to issue entry visas to a number of Russian delegates to the Parliamentary Assembly of the European security organization OSCE - TASS] is that in the future the organization of important international events is possible only in the countries that don’t take part in sanctions," Kosachov said in Facebook.

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"This should be clearly stipulated on the background of the failed Helsinki +40 in its parliamentary dimension," he said.

The countries that convene international events in their territories "should recognize that they impose self-restrictions on their right to hold international events if they introduce any sanctions without consent from the UN, since the adoption of one-sided steps or observance of corporate obligations superimposed by non-UN entities, of which they are members and the sanction moves of which they undersign, does not ensure unimpeded access to international events for all the invitees," Kosachov said.

On Tuesday, Finnish Foreign Ministry spokesman Vesa Hakkinnen told TASS the Finnish authorities had decided to deny an entry visa to State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin, who had been invited to attend a session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Helsinki from July 5 through July 9.

Hakkinen said the decision had been taken on the basis of the EU’s non-entry list of a number of Russian officials that was part of a package of anti-Russian sanctions imposed after Crimea’s reunification with Russia in March 2014. Sergei Naryshkin is one of the officials on that blacklist.

Naryshkin said later the entire Russian delegation would not go to Helsinki as, besides himself, visas had been denied to several more delegates.

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