Russian parliamentarians condemn Helsinki for incident with Naryshkin

Russian parliamentarians have told Vestnik Kavkaza that they condemn the Finnish government's decision to deny the State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin entry to the country to attend the session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.

The deputy chairman of the Federation Council, Ilyas Umakhanov, reminded that the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly involves the provision of a platform for parliamentarians of the countries that 40 years ago signed the Helsinki Act to discuss the most pressing issues and questions of freedom and democracy in the world, including freedom of movement. "The fact that the Finnish authorities have demonstrated a direct violation of the agreements and principles proclaimed by the Parliamentary Assembly itself. I believe that this is a gross violation of generally accepted democratic ethics and parliamentary norms," the senator said.

In his turn, the Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, Andrei Klimov, said that until recently Finland has positioned itself as a good neighbor of Russia and a neutral state, the place of establishment of the Helsinki Agreement, "the 40th anniversary of which we, in fact, are going to celebrate," and with that this incident is even more unpleasant. "Suddenly Helsinki are showing a rather strange pirouette, refusing to allow the head of the lower house of parliament to attend the event, and not just from one of the signatory countries of the Helsinki agreement, but also its neighbor. Previously, Finns never forgot about their own interests and political reputation, while engaging in international affairs. I think Finland's position as a relatively objective side is now shattered," the senator believes.