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Russia’s proposal for cancelling sanctions against legislators still valid — senator

The meddling in Russian, US elections was touched upon at the meeting with the US senator, according to the Russian parliamentarian
A plenary meeting of the Federation Council (the Russian parliament's upper house) Anton Novoderezhkin/TASS
A plenary meeting of the Federation Council (the Russian parliament's upper house)
© Anton Novoderezhkin/TASS

MOSCOW, September 6. /TASS/. The chairman of the Federation Council’s International Affairs Committee, Konstantin Kosachyov, met with US Senator Michael Lee on Friday to confirm Russia’s proposal for cancelling sanctions against each other’s legislators on the basis of reciprocity.

"The ultimate goal is to abandon sanctions against legislators altogether. At least an agreement should be achieved to reciprocally lift sanctions from those legislators who go to the other country on an official visit. I would like to use this meeting to confirm that our proposals remain in force," Kosachyov told Lee at a meeting at the Federation Council, held at the initiative of the American side.

He recalled that Russia’s decisions, including those which had made the arrival of a larger US delegation in Russia impossible, were retaliatory and might be revised, if the corresponding US decisions were canceled, too.

Earlier, the newspaper Politico said Republican Senator Michael Lee (from Utah), was granted a Russian visa this week. According to the newspaper, Lee plans to meet with government officials, members of the business community and US ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman.

At the end of August a number of US legislators stated they would like to go to Russia as members of a bipartisan delegation of the US Congress. Senator Ron Johnson (a Republican from Wisconsin) and Chris Murphy (a Democrat from Connecticut) claimed they were denied Russian visas. The Russian side said Johnson and Murphy had not asked for visas. At the same time it was confirmed that both legislators were on Russia’s retaliatory stop-list.

Issue of meddling in Russian, US elections

The chairman of the Federation Council’s International Affairs Committee has said that the issue of meddling in Russian and US elections was touched upon at Friday’s meeting with visiting US Senator Michael Lee.

"We voiced our concern over US intervention [in the elections]. Our counterpart expressed worries over what he believes was Russian intervention," Kosachyov told the media afterwards.

Earlier, the chief of the Federation Council’s Interim Commission for the Protection of State Sovereignty and the Prevention of Intervention in Russia’s Internal Affairs, Andrei Klimov, reported that his commission had identified signs of foreign intervention in the unauthorized protest rally in the center of Moscow on July 27. Klimov sees a confirmation of this conclusion in newscasts of the leading English-language and pro-Western media, whose interpretation of the events was heavily biased. Also, he said that the commission took note of attempts by US lobbyists to influence the election process in Russia by means of putting pressure on some members of the Human Rights Council and university staffers.

US secret services accuse Russia of intervention in the US election in 2016. Special Counsel Robert Mueller spent two years investigating the alleged meddling attempts. On April 18, the US Department of Justice released his final report. Mueller stated that the probe had found no evidence of Donald Trump’s collusion with Moscow. At the same time he claimed that Russia had tried to influence the election campaign.