Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.3
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
Federation Council of Russia is not going to stop inter-parliamentary cooperation with the United States and Europe, speaker of the upper house of the parliament of Russia Valentina Matvienko told reporters in Baku.
"This is a temporary pause. We are in no way intend to stop our international cooperation with the parliaments of Europe and the United States and other countries," said Matvienko. "It is a very important partnership, it is public diplomacy, it is our soft power. These contacts enable us to better understand each other, to make decisions, to justify a position, and we are not going to terminate these contacts."
She said that active development of contacts with the countries of Asia, Latin America, Africa and others is currently underway.
"Surely future plans will include exchanges of parliamentary delegations from all countries, including Europe and the United States," said Matvienko.
Western countries since March repeatedly imposed sanctions against a number of Russian politicians, businessmen and companies and threatened to extend the restrictive measures in relation to non-recognition (of the United States and the EU) annexation of the Crimea to Russia and accusation of Moscow in interference in the affairs of Ukraine. Russia denies it and calls the accusations unacceptable.
In response to the sanctions Russia banned the import of agricultural products, raw materials and food, which are produced in the United States, the EU, Canada, Australia and Norway for 1 year.