GENEVA, January 1. /TASS/. The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, plans to visit Russia.

"I will go to Moscow," Spoljaric Egger said in an interview published by the Neue Zurcher Zeitung am Sontag weekly on Sunday. The timing of such a trip has not yet been determined yet.

"It is important that we talk with Russia at all levels," she said. In particular, the focus is on contacts in the field. "We need to be able to get security guarantees on site for sending representatives to visit prisoners. For that we need contacts locally," she said.

Spoljaric Egger recalled that the ICRC was in dialogue "with all parties on their obligation to comply with international humanitarian law."

"This includes access to prisoners of war and civilian prisoners," she stressed. "All states must remember that only compliance with international humanitarian law, international agreements and the UN Charter guarantees peace and stability."

In the first half of December 2022, Spoljaric Egger visited Ukraine. During that four-day trip she met with both officials and prisoners’ relatives.

Swiss diplomat Mirjana Spoljaric Egger was elected as ICRC president in November 2021. She took office on October 1, 2022. Previously, she served as Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and regional director of the United Nations Development Program for Europe and the CIS.

Starting from 2000, she has held various positions within the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, including those at the Swiss embassy in Cairo, as well as in Bern and New York.

Founded in 1863, the ICRC works around the world to help people affected by conflict and armed violence, and to spread knowledge about the laws that protect victims of war.