MOSCOW, September 30. /ITAR-TASS/. Lawmakers from Russia's parliamentary upper house have suspended interparliamentary contacts with countries backing sanctions against Russia, Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy chairman of the Federation Council’s International Affairs Committee, said on Tuesday.

“It doesn't mean a complete break in relations. We are just cancelling at the moment our planned parliamentary trips to the United States and Greece,” Dzhabarov said, adding that “the Federation Council wants to reconsider its international trips in connection with the current international situation”.

“We are not engaged in parliamentary tourism,” he added. “We want our contacts to bear fruit.”

Vadim Tulpanov, chairing the council’s Committee for Regulation and Organization of Parliamentary Activity, said lawmakers had switched over to planning foreign trips monthly rather than quarterly.

Assembly colleague Viktor Pichugov said 19 foreign trips have been scheduled for October, noting that about $100,000 has been allocated for those purposes, a little less than the average monthly travel allowance of $109,000.

Western sanctions against Russia

The United States and the European Union have imposed several rounds of sanctions against Moscow since March over its stance on the conflict in Ukraine.

By the beginning of September, some 420 Russian individuals and 143 companies have been put on the sanctions lists of the European Union, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, Switzerland and Norway.

Retaliating for Western penalties, Moscow introduced a one-year ban on imports of selected foods from sanctioning countries. The ban, announced at the start of August, bars imports of meat, fish, dairy, fruit and vegetables from the United States, the 28-nation European Union, Canada, Australia and Norway.