MOSCOW, July 3. /TASS/. The State Duma has made a statement Friday condemning the decision of Finland and several other EU countries to deny entry to lower house Speaker Sergey Naryshkin and five other Russian citizens to participate in the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (PA OSCE) scheduled for July 5-9. The deputies noted that undermining political dialogue with Russia may result in growing threat to security in Europe.
"Sanctions against Russian parliamentarians and delegations can result in undermining such dialogue with negative consequences for security and political atmosphere on the European continent," the statement said. "Blatantly discriminatory measures actions toward the Russian delegation can only arise regret and bewilderment," the State Duma said.
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This situation became the result of unfriendly and damaging policy toward Russia, the lawmakers added. The State Duma stressed that "the Finnish authorities and those EU countries that made Russia’s participation in PA OSCE session impossible" bear responsibility for denying entry to the Russian delegation. "The State Duma resolutely condemns the decision of Finland’s government. Equal political dialogue is impossible in such conditions," the document noted.
On Wednesday, the Finnish Foreign Ministry said that Naryshkin will be denied entry to Finland to participate in the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (PA OSCE) in Helsinki due to take place on July 5-9. The decision was explained by the fact that the State Duma speaker was included in EU’s "blacklist" of sanctioned officials.
Naryshkin later announced that the Russian delegation as a whole will not participate in the PA OSCE session in Helsinki, where it planned to put forward draft resolutions on impermissibility of sanctions against parliamentarians and countering Nazism rehabilitation. However, the Duma speaker confirmed that Russia plans to participate in the next PA OSCE session in Mongolia’s capital Ulan Bator.