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Legislative support for Minsk Agreements should be improved — Russian Duma speaker

Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Voloding said that "parliaments may work as effectively in the framework of implementing the Minsk Agreements"

MOSCOW, March 10. /TASS/. The parliaments of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany could work effectively on the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Voloding said on Tuesday at the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and head of the political council of Ukraine's Opposition Platform — For Life party Viktor Medvedchuk at the Kremlin.

"We think that this approach may be effective. The heads of states are doing a lot. However, parliaments may work as effectively in the framework of implementing the Minsk Agreements because the legislative support for the reached agreements leaves much to be desired. This is precisely the main problem for our colleagues in the Verkhovna Rada at the moment. That's why it is necessary to expand this dialogue," Volodin said.

"On our side, we have set up a working group today, we are moving from exchanging opinions to discussing specific issues," he added noting that parliamentarians from France and Germany should also join this format.

Medvedchuk said that the term "parliamentary dimension of the Normandy format" proposed by Putin was used by German and French parliamentarians. "When I met with members of the Senate and National Assembly [upper and lower houses of the French parliament] in Paris, and then with members of the Bundestag [German parliament], this term has been used a lot - 'parliamentary dimension of the Normandy format'," he noted.