MOSCOW, June 19. /TASS/. Russian senators adopted a statement at a plenary meeting on Wednesday condemning what they said were the West’s destructive attempts to block the Russian delegation at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
"The Federation Council <…> strongly condemns the openly destructive attempts of the countries of the collective West to block the work of the Russian delegation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE PA). The senators of the Russian Federation proceed from the need for interaction within the OSCE PA, Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation and Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy to be returned to strict adherence to the principles of equality of legislators and giving up the creation of artificial obstacles in the work of parliamentary delegations," the upper house of Russia’s parliament said in a statement ahead of the International Day of Parliamentarism.
In it, the Federation Council called on international parliamentary organizations and global legislators to work together toward strengthening peaceful and mutually beneficial relations between nations and governments. Senators noted that attempts by the collective West to impose a unipolar world order on the international community, "based on the self-interested diktat of Washington and a group of its satellites, are expectedly failing." "In these conditions, parliamentary diplomacy becomes increasingly important in establishing a constructive dialogue among nations," the statement reads.
The senators highlighted the special role of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in "making the joint work of legislators from different countries more effective, especially on countering new challenges and threats faced by humanity."
Also, they expressed hope that BRICS legislators to attend the grouping’s upcoming 10th Parliamentary Forum in an expanded format in St. Petersburg next month will "contribute to a more efficient and democratic international relations system, preventing unilateral restrictive measures against sovereign states, and strengthening ties with developing countries and their integration associations."
Earlier, Romanian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Radu Filip said that the Romanian authorities would not allow delegations from Russia and Belarus to participate in the annual session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, which will be held in Bucharest from June 29 to July 3.