“This year we adopted
amendments to the electoral legislation. Voting on amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation had lasted for three days. So many
people and organizations made statements following the voting. Representatives
of the European Union, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the OSCE, and some European politicians criticized it,” said Viacheslav 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)
.
He also drew attention to the recent presidential elections in the United States, where the voting in different states lasted from 4 up to 45 days, and the ballots were sent by mail.
“But that is their choice. We do not interfere. And they should not interfere in our elections,” stressed Viacheslav Volodin and reminded of the adopted amendments to the Constitution, aimed at more effective countering attempts of foreign interference.
He also recalled that Russia condemned interference in the affairs of sovereign states.
“I would like once again to emphasize the inadmissibility of interference not only in the internal affairs of our country, but also in the internal affairs of other countries,” said Viacheslav Volodin.
“We consider it unacceptable to interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign Belarus. Colleagues, we all know the results of such interference in Libya and Iraq and we can see the situation in Ukraine,” stressed the Chairman of the State Duma.
International agenda
Speaking about the situation in Ukraine, the Chairman of the State Duma stressed that it would be right to develop the parliamentary cooperation of the Normandy Four.
“This dialogue was initiated by sound politicians in the Verkhovna Rada. We support it. It can be effective. When the coronavirus situation gets better, we plan to enhance our cooperation with colleagues from Germany and France,” he said.
Viacheslav Volodin also paid attention to the events took place in 2020.
He stressed that “one of the most important decisions of our President was an agreement with leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia on the complete ceasefire and termination of hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone. That decision made it possible to stop the bloodshed and save human lives. Tragedy was averted.”
Speaking about the international agenda of the State Duma, he said that this year a meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus and Russia was held via videoconference. Parliamentarians adopted the budget of the Union State for 2021 at the meeting.
Meetings of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly, the BRICS Parliamentary Forum, meeting of the Inter-parliamentary Commission on Cooperation between Parliaments of Russia and China were also held in 2020.
“But the videoconference format will not replace live communication, so we plan to return gradually to our common formats of communication. Meeting of the Inter-parliamentary Commission will take place in the Republic of Korea in a few days,” said Viacheslav Volodin.
