Russian lawmaker advises international partners against planning events in US

MOSCOW, August 28. /TASS/. State Duma Speaker Sergey Naryshkin has advised Russia’s international partners to "think twice" before planning any events on the territory of the United States.

"I would strongly advise our international partners, politicians, businessmen, experts, representatives of professional unions to think twice before planning any events on the territory of the United States," Naryshkin told journalists. "Because ‘hospitable’ hosts will assume responsibility not only for holding banquets, but also for censuring the guest list. Maybe they will even put face control in front of the entrance," he added.

"Such behavior by a country that considers itself to be a constitutional state is just inadmissible," Naryshkin said.

US disruption of Matviyenko’s visit creates another "immoral precedent"

According to the lawmaker, the move by the United States to disrupt the trip of Russia’s upper house speaker Valentina Matviyenko to New York creates "another immoral and unlawful precedent." 

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said earlier this week that the visa for Matviyenko issued on August 26 contains some "inadmissible" restrictions on the stay in the United States which make the Russian delegation’s planned visit there impossible.

"Washington has created another immoral and unlawful precedent by refusing to comply with the commitments of the country-co-organizer of the major international forum [of Inter-Parliamentary Union]," Russia's lower house speaker said.

The State Duma chairman reminded that one of the goals of multilateral international organizations is to ensure that the participants are able to hold an open dialogue despite their differences.

Speaking on the visa restriction, Naryshkin said: "This is a shameless violation of the international law," adding that "Washington creates borders and standards of diplomatic indecency."

The US authorities "refused to acknowledge and respect the international status of the oldest and major interparliamentary peace organization, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, set up long before the UN and uniting 155 world countries today," he said.

The delegation of Russian parliamentarians led by Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko planned to participate in the 4th World Conference of Speakers of Parliament that will take place on from August 31 to September 2 in New York. The event will be preceded by the 10th Meeting of Women Speakers of Parliament due to be held on August 29-30. The Russian Foreign Ministry reported on Wednesday that the visit of the Russian delegation to New York became impossible after the United States provided a restricted visa for Matviyenko. "In particular, visa does not allow to participate in any meetings or over events in the framework of the Inter-Parliamentary Union," the foreign ministry said.

As a result, the Russian delegation, which also included Federation Council Deputy Chairperson Galina Karelova, International Affairs Committee Chairman Konstantin Kosachev, member of Committee on Science, Education and Culture Alexander Totoonov, decided not to participation in the Inter-Parliamentary Union event.

Naryshkin denied entry to Finland

On July 1, the Finnish Foreign Ministry said that Russian State Duma Speaker Sergey 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 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.