Pedro Agramunt
First Vice-speaker of the state Duma Ivan Melnikov called harassment statement of the Bureau of the parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on mistrust to the head of the organization, Pedro Agramunt, in connection with his recent trip to Syria. On Friday, April 27, reports TASS.
“Even if there is some friction, they can be solved peacefully and not sticking out of the conflict. And then all of Europe put on display biased persecution, authoritarian pressure on the person who has shown a willingness to listen to another point of view, with your own eyes to get acquainted with visual reasoning, to reduce the intensity of unnecessary confrontation,” — said Melnikov.
The head of the Duma international Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky expressed support Agramunt, which, in his words, “decided to look at the situation in Syria and to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of the struggle and opposition to the forces of international terrorism on its territory”.
The PACE Bureau has expressed a vote of no confidence in the Agramunt earlier on Friday. Now he can’t take official visits and make public statements on behalf of the Assembly.
The PACE President along with a delegation of Russian parliamentarians headed by Vice-speaker of the state Duma Vladimir Vasiliev visited Syria in March of this year. In particular, he met with President Bashar al-Assad. Agramunt stressed that he arrived in Syria as a private citizen and not a representative Assembly.