Romania refused the visas of the Russian delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly
Romania refused to issue visas to the members of the Russian delegation to participate in the annual session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which will take place from June 29 to July 3 in Bucharest, informs Free Europe.
Grigori Karasin, the president of the Committee for International Affairs of the Federation Council, announced this on his Telegram account. He stated that the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has conveyed that, due to Russian aggression against Ukraine, "none of the members of the delegation of the Russian Federation will receive a visa or be allowed to enter the country." Karasin also mentioned that Moscow will remember this decision of Bucharest.
"At the end of June, a session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly was scheduled in Bucharest. Thus, we were sent a note from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania: none of the members of the Russian delegation will receive visas and will not be allowed to enter the country", reads the post.
The Russian senator said that Moscow would remember this decision of Bucharest.
"Well done, Romanian comrades, you contribute to the destruction of this organization that was once useful for cooperation in Europe," added Karasin. Russia has not attended at least four meetings and sessions of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly: in Great Britain in 2022, Canada and Armenia in 2023 and in Austria this year.
The head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Leonid Slutsky, said in February that the members of the Russian delegation "are not invited anywhere" during the work of the assembly.
The head of the delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Piotr Tolstoy, proposed the suspension of Russia's participation in the assembly and the cessation of payment of membership fees. In April, the Council of the State Duma of Russia suspended the payment of these fees.
