A delegation of Russia's Federation Council with a full complement has cancelled its visit to the United States: the host country has decided to issue a limited visa to the Speaker of the upper house of parliament, Valentina Matviyenko. The Russian Foreign Ministry accused the US government of disrupting the travel of the Russian parliamentarians in the United States on the activities of the Parliamentary Union.
The statement noted that "issued after long delays, the visa contains a number of unacceptable restrictions for the stay of Valentina Matviyenko in the US, in particular, the visa does not allow her to participate in any meetings or other events held by the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Under these circumstances, the visit of the delegation of Russian lawmakers headed by Valentina Matviyenko to New York has become impossible."
The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that "such actions by the US authorities are absolutely unacceptable. They are a terrible violation of the universally accepted norms of international law, and are contrary to the obligations of states which receive multilateral forums on their territory."
As the Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko stated today, she received an invitation from the Chairman of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Mr. Saber Chowdhury, to participate in the 4th World Conference of Speakers of Parliaments, which will be held on August 31st-September 2nd 2015 at the UN headquarters in New York, as well as to the 10th Meeting of Women Speakers.
Today Valentina Matvienko stated that "the decision of the US authorities is a flagrant violation of international law and its own commitments to the international community, it calls into question the usefulness of international events in the United States and is unacceptable for us. I cannot accept such defective visa conditions, so the participation of a Russian delegation at the World Conference of Speakers is not possible. The responsibility for this falls entirely on the United States, while they dress up in a toga democracy and as freedom of speech advocates, they have once again openly trampled on the basic norms of interstate communication and behavior ... We can only regret that a major power uses such unworthy methods."
