Russian House Speaker Says Cancellation of Visit to Switzerland Unfortunate

Source : http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/08/15/russian-house-speaker-cancellation-visit-switzerland-unfortunate.html

The speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, Sergei Naryshkin, expressed his regret Friday that his visit to Switzerland for the celebration of 200 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries was canceled.

"I of course regret that such a symbolic occasion to hold meetings and official bilateral negotiations between our countries, including on the inter-parliamentary level, will be missed," Naryshkin told journalists.

"It's unfortunate because these inter-parliamentary contacts are important today when there is so much, I would say, excessive tension in Europe," he said.

He added that it "was obvious that our Swiss colleagues were forced to change their stance because of outside pressure."

Naryshkin believes Switzerland’s well-established neutral status has always allowed the country to be objective, however in this case, he said, "Our Swiss colleagues had to revise the status due to outer pressure."

He added that the Russian delegation will still join the celebrations as part of their obligations.

"We meet our commitments and we will obviously implement previous agreements, because we do not allow ourselves to behave inappropriately," Naryshkin said.

On Thursday, the Swiss parliament said it canceled Naryshkin’s official visit to Bern scheduled for next month.

"The planned visit isn’t opportune at the moment," the parliament said in a statement.

In March, the European Union added Naryshkin to the list of sanctioned Russian officials. His assets were frozen and he is banned from travelling to the European Union.

Earlier this month, Switzerland barred a Russian aerobatics display team from taking part in an air show in Payerne.