The Chairman of the State
Duma Vyacheslav Volodin
Vyacheslav Victorovich
The Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the eighth convocation. Elected in single mandate constituency № 163 (Saratov constituency - Saratov Oblast)
held a meeting with members of the European Parliament
and representatives of the national parliaments of European states.
Representatives of Germany, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Serbia were among the meeting participants.
The relevant current issues of concern were discussed at the meeting. The negotiations lasted more than two hours.
“Representatives of the European Parliament and national parliaments of European states are not such frequent guests here, despite the fact that their location is not far away from here. Sometimes, those who want to come to Russia have to travel through other countries, so the distance increases several times. And those who live far away, despite this, come here more often,” emphasized Vyacheslav Volodin at the meeting.
The Chairman of the State Duma noted the importance for members of parliaments representing the interests of their constituents in legislative bodies, to conduct a dialogue with all colleagues, regardless of their representation of any country or party. “Meetings help us better understand each other, develop solutions that are important for people, for countries. We are very glad that you are our guests here today,” he added.
The meeting participants also discussed issues related to conducting dialogue based on the principles of mutual respect and equality; the inadmissibility of distorting history and preserving monuments and memorials to Soviet soldiers in the European states.
Vyacheslav Volodin thanked the parliamentarians for coming to Russia and noted their decisiveness and desire to conduct dialogue with their counterparts from the Russian Federation, despite the position of the official authorities of a number of European states.
“There are those forces in Europe that are ready to build dialogue with
Russia”
Following the meeting, the European parliamentarians shared their impressions.
“We are here to show that there are still politicians in the European Union and the European Parliament who support the development of relations with Russia. We are here to express gratitude to the Russian and Soviet people for their contribution to the Victory,” said the Deputy leader of the Direction — Slovak Social Democracy party, representative of Slovakia at the European Parliament Ľuboš Blaha.
“I represent my country, those people in Cyprus, in Greece, in Europe, who support the development of relations with Russia, and there are a majority of those people in Greece and Cyprus. And I should say that they are trying to put obstacles in our way. But despite this, we consider it important to come here, to continue our cooperation and development, because we see prospects for this, the need to continue our work,” emphasized Fidias Panayiotou, representative of the Republic of Cyprus at the European Parliament.
“Unlike our government and the European authorities, the people of the country really support and love Russia. And even the results of the polls conducted at the level of the European Union show that 80% of the population of Bulgaria support Russia, love it,” said Ivan Petkov, a member of the National Assembly of Bulgaria. “Indeed, we see that we need to continue cooperation, despite attempts to rewrite history, to steal our Victory,” he added.
“Many people are afraid, and I don't know why they are afraid of their own victory and pride in what our people have done. In my opinion, this is completely wrong. And the fact that we are here at the Duma today, that Mr. Volodin has met with us, held negotiations us, this is very significant, especially for our colleagues — European parliamentarians. They will be able to see that Russia is ready for dialogue. And it has always been ready. Unfortunately, what we see now in Europe, the entire policy is built on Russophobia,” said Dragan Stanojević, Chairman of the Committee on Diaspora and Serbs in the Region of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia.
“The German authorities are trying to convince everyone that Russia is not ready for dialogue and does not want it. And that is the reason why I am here today, I want to show that Russia is truly open and ready for dialogue, and it is conducting it,” stressed the public figure from Germany Alexander von Bismarck. “I want to show all the German people that they can come here, can hold negotiations with Russia,” he added.
