MOSCOW, September 17./TASS/. An appeal by the European Parliament to ditch the amendments to the Russian Constitution is nothing but flagrant meddling in Russia’s internal affairs, Chairman of the Russian State Duma’s Committee for International Affairs Leonid Slutsky told journalists on Thursday, noting that the resolution was not binding.
"The resolution by the European Parliament on the circumstances surrounding Alexey Navalny’s alleged poisoning, when read between the lines peddles itself as a tactic for Russia’s ‘democratization’ with a demand to abolish the Russian constitutional amendments, is nothing more than outright and blatant meddling in our nation’s domestic affairs," Slutsky maintained.
He also pointed out that "the resolutions of the European Parliament serve as a recommendation and are not binding." That is why, there is hope that sober-minded European politicians will steer clear of these politicized and clearly not consistent with the reality assessments from European parliamentarians, he said.
The Russian legislator stressed that members of the European Parliament had "in point of fact confirmed a provocative nature of all developments around the patient of the Charite hospital." "This anti-Russian 'show' was put on with an aim to further contain Russia, first of all economically, as well as to make new attempts to influence its foreign policy course," Slutsky stressed.
He is confident that the resolution of the European Parliament is in no way aimed at protecting human rights and democracy, but seeks to maintain "the degree of anti-Russian hysteria, including with regard to the Nord Stream 2 project."
Appeals to tighten sanctions and to carry out an independent probe into the Navalny case while refusing to answer the questions from Moscow "are aimed solely at fomenting the anti-Russian sentiment for the sake of advancing someone’s vested interests," he stressed.
On Thursday, the European Parliament passed a resolution over the Alexey Navalny case. In particular, it contains an appeal to the European Union to "continuously demand that Russia repeal or amend all laws incompatible with international standards, including the illegally enacted recent changes to the Russian Constitution."