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European Parliament imposing confrontational agenda ahead of Putin-Biden summit - MP

The European Parliament and its President David Sassoli have tried to gain political weight using the upcoming meeting between the Russian and US presidents as a pretext, speaker of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house Vyacheslav Volodin said

Speaker of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin Anton Novoderzhkin/TASS

Speaker of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin

© Anton Novoderzhkin/TASS

MOSCOW, May 30. /TASS/. The European Parliament is seeking to impose a confrontational agenda ahead of a summit meeting between Russian and US Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, in a bid to win political points, speaker of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house Vyacheslav Volodin said on Sunday.

"The European Parliament and its President David Sassoli have tried to gain political weight using the upcoming meeting between the Russian and US presidents as a pretext," he wrote on his Telegram channel. He recalled that they had invited Washington to join a draft joint statement to be made public ahead of the summit, on June 15. The document calls for toughening sanctions against Russia and China.

"As a matter of fact, the European Parliament is imposing a confrontational agenda on Joe Biden ahead of his meeting with Vladimir Putin. It is obviously meant to exert pressure, to create a negative backdrop for the summit - in a bid to gain political points on the topics that might be discussed by the two presidents," he noted.

According to Volodin, such a position is irresponsible, since "trying to wreck possible Russian-US agreements the Europeans are cutting their own throats" and ignore the role of the Russian-US relations for peace and wellbeing in Europe.

He slammed the draft statement as a "miserable attempt to butt into the dialogue."

"Respect and authority in politics cannot be won without offering a positive agenda and building relations on the principles of openness, reciprocity, and avoiding double standards. As well as self-discipline," he stressed.

Bloomberg reported earlier that the European Union had invited the US administration to come up with a joint statement on a common approach to Russia and counteracting Russia’s actions they deem hostile.

Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Joe Biden of the United States are expected to meet in Geneva on June 16.

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