“The decision not to admit Russian deputies to monitor the elections in Ukraine that is absolutely contrary to the OSCE practice and legislative ban hastily adopted by the Verkhovna Rada violate the principles of the OSCE. There were a lot of countries in this organization that had difficulties at one time or another, there were conflicts, although I do not think that Russia has any problems with Ukraine, it is Ukraine that believes that it has problems with Russia, but this never resulted in a ban on observation of elections. We believe that this violates the basic principles of the organization,” said Petr Tolstoy.
In addition, during the meeting of the Standing Committee, he raised a question of the danger of the United States withdrawal from the INF Treaty.
He believes that this decision of the United States ”directly affects the security of each country represented here.“
“It seemed that the era when these issues were discussed was far in the past. Our American colleagues believe that they have defeated everyone and everything in the Cold War, that they both dictated and will dictate their will to the European countries. They have decided to withdraw from the Treaty. I want to emphasize that this decision endangers the life of every citizen of each of the European countries. Let me remind you that the launchers are already stationed in Romania, Poland, and the Baltic countries,” said Petr Tolstoy.
At the same time, he stressed that Russia has means to respond if such missiles are deployed along the borders of our country. However, he noted that the current situation is extremely unpleasant and dangerous.
The delegation of the State Duma headed by Petr Tolstoy takes part in the winter session of the OSCE PA on 20–23 February.
