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Russia to send letter to US Speaker Pelosi after MP questioning in New York

The Russian parliament speaker reiterated that contacts with American lawmakers will continue
Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi ( AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (
© AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

MOSCOW, October 10. /TASS/. Speaker of the Russian State Duma (parliament’s lower chamber) Vyacheslav Volodin will send a letter addressed to Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (Democrat, California) following Russian MP Inga Yumasheva’s detention and questioning at a New York airport, Chairperson of the State Duma’s Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky told a meeting of the committee on Thursday.

"Today a letter from the speaker of the State Duma will be sent to Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (it will be signed later today) containing a request to cooperate and refrain from these incidents in the future," he said.

Slutsky reiterated that contacts with American lawmakers will continue and underlined that Russia is not introducing a moratorium on State Duma MPs’ trips to the US, however, they will have to be arranged more thoroughly.

Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said October 5 that Yumasheva, who had arrived in the country to take part in the Fort Ross Dialogue forum, was detained at the New York airport by FBI agents and was questioned for an hour. Russia has sent a diplomatic note to the US Department of State, protesting against the move. The FBI rejected a TASS request for a comment. State Duma Chairperson Vyacheslav Volodin blasted FBI agents’ actions as an outrage. He recalled that the MP heads a group of friendship with the US Congress and has done a lot to develop relations between the two legislatures in the current complicated situation.