Russian-US inter-parliamentary contacts suspended

The US Congress’ refusal to accept the Russian delegation in Washington for the resolution of the Syrian conflict suspends inter-parliamentary contacts, State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Alexei Pushkov said. “The American reaction interrupts our contacts. Now it is difficult to imagine when they are resumed,” the Duma lawmaker said. The United States refuses to receive the Russian parliamentary delegation because “it fears that Russia’s arguments can have an impact on the pace of discussions [on the Syrian issue] and consolidate the positions of (of US President Barack) Obama opponents”, Pushkov said. At the same time, he said, “We should state that the US Congress is not ready to hold a normal dialog.” Such position makes “us to think how it will be necessary to build relations with the US Congress, which takes a non-constructive position on Russia”, the parliamentarian said, adding that the United States “adopted the Magnitsky Law and black lists on sanctions against Russian citizens. America always calls for boycotting the Olympic Games 2014 in Sochi”. Pushkov said the US Congress “pursues a consistent policy towards obstructing and blocking the inter-parliamentary dialogue”. “If the US believes that it determines a format of the dialogue, it makes a mistake,” the Russian parliamentarian said.