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Military operation in Ukraine

Prominent Russian lawmaker speaks out against swapping Azov members, calls for tribunal

Leonid Slutsky dismissed earlier media reports, which quoted him as saying that the issue of swapping Azov militants for Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk was being discussed

MOSCOW, May 22. /TASS/. The head of the LDPR party faction in the Russian parliament’s lower chamber, the State Duma, and the chairman of the Duma’s international affairs committee, Leonid Slutsky, believes that members of Ukraine’s Azov nationalist battalion should face a tribunal for their crimes, and their swap should be ruled out.

"My opinion remains unchanged: there must be no exchange of members of the Azov [battalion], which is outlawed in Russia. Their fate should be determined by a tribunal," Slutsky wrote in his Telegram channel on Saturday.

He dismissed earlier media reports, which quoted him as saying that the issue of swapping Azov militants for Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk was being discussed. "All interpretations that are being expressed now are incorrect in essence, I would like to stress it once again," Slutsky said.

In his words, those matters are to be discussed "by those vested with proper authority."

Slutsky led a delegation of LDPR lawmakers, who met with the Donetsk People’s Republic leader Denis Pushilin in Donetsk on Saturday.

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