Russia to take every opportunity to submit its resolutions to OSCE PA

Russian will take every opportunity to submit its two draft resolutions to the Parliamentary Assembly (PA) of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that have been crossed out of the agenda of the OSCE PA current session, Nikolai Kovalyov, the only member of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house who is representing Russia, told TASS on Sunday.

"We will submit them as soon as possible. Frankly speaking, it is not planned to consider resolutions at the autumn session in Mongolia. But we will defend our approaches and as soon as we have an opportunity we will insist on their consideration," he said. "The very fact that these resolutions have been withdrawn from the agenda is wrong. Along with (State Duma speaker Sergei) Naryshkin and Kovalyov, who will not take part in the session, their authors include other people, why they should be treated that badly?"
The session was to consider two draft resolutions initiated by the Russian delegations - on the inadmissibility of using sanctions against lawmakers from OSCE member countries and on the necessity of joint OSCE measures to prevent manifestations of neo-Nazism. But they were withdrawn from the agenda because of the absence of the Russian delegation, Parliamentary Assembly President Ilkka Kanerva said.

Earlier, Finland denied entry visas to speaker of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house Sergei Naryshkin and six more Russian lawmakers who were to take part in an OSCE Parliamentary Assembly session opening on Sunday. The Finnish foreign ministry motivated this denial by the fact that these Russian nationals were on the European Union’s sanction list. After that, the entire Russian delegation said it would not go to Helsinki. "My colleagues agreed with me that it was impossible to reduce the level of representation of the Russian delegation at this session - the more so that it is devoted to such a vital date as the 40th anniversary of signing the Helsinki Final Act - the founding document," Naryshkin said.

Russia is represented at the Helsinki session by Nikolai Kovalyov, a member of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house.