MOSCOW, July 6. /TASS/. Representatives of EU and OSCE countries have voiced concern over Finland’s entry visa denial to speaker of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house Sergey Naryshkin who was to take part in a session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Helsinki, Russia’s Permanent Representative at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Andrey Kelin said on Monday.
"As far as I know, the steering committee that met yesterday discussed this incident [visa denial]. Representatives of a number of states, including countries of the European Union, said that such situation was absolutely inadmissible. It threatened to frustrate the work that is to be done," he said.
On July 1, Finland denied entry visas to speaker of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house Sergey Naryshkin and five more Russian lawmakers who were to take part in an OSCE Parliamentary Assembly session opening on Sunday. The Finnish foreign ministry motivated this denial by the fact that these Russian nationals were on the European Union’s sanction list. After that, the entire Russian delegation said it would not go to Helsinki. "My colleagues agreed with me that it was impossible to reduce the level of representation of the Russian delegation at this session — the more so that it is devoted to such a vital date as the 40th anniversary of signing the Helsinki Final Act — the founding document," Naryshkin said.
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