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Russia withdrawing from Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference — Duma speaker

Currently, Moscow has no dialogue with parliaments of most of the BSPC’s permanent member states, Vyacheslav Volodin pointed out

MOSCOW, May 16. /TASS/. The Council of Russia’s State Duma (lower parliament house) has passed a decision on Russia’s withdrawal from the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference (BSPC), State duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said on Monday.

"Today, the Duma Council passed a decision on Russia’s withdrawal from the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference. The BSPC’s permanent members are parliaments of Germany, Denmark, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Finland, Sweden, and Estonia. Currently, we have no dialogue with parliaments of most of these countries, either within this organization or via inter-parliamentary channels," the lower house’s website quoted him as saying.

According to the Russian lower house speaker, responsibility for severing parliamentary ties rests on those who are seeking to undermine the conference’s fundamental principles and is using it for attacks on Russia.

"The activities of the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference have always been based on equality and all resolutions have always been passed by consensus. But it has terminated real cooperation and its member countries seem to have forgotten about the interests of their own citizens. Once a useful format of multilateral dialogue has been turned into an instrument of anti-Russian policies. It makes further cooperation within the BSPC void of any sense," Volodin stressed.

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Foreign policy Vyacheslav Volodin

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