Peter Tolstoy
Vice-speaker of the state Duma Pyotr Tolstoy headed the Russian delegation in the parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for security and cooperation in Europe (OSCE PA). About it reports TASS on Friday, January 27.
His candidacy was supported by the meeting participants of the delegation — Deputy of the state Duma and Federation Council members, the Agency said.
The day before, on January 26, it was reported that Tolstoy explained to the head of the Federation of Jewish communities of Russia Alexander Boroda his statement on the pale of settlement, which the Deputy accused of anti-Semitism. United Russia is assured that he meant a particular nationality, when talking about people, destroys religious shrines.
In late December, as reported by TASS, the speaker of the state Duma Vyacheslav Volodin stated that United Russia will nominate Tolstoy as the head of the representatives of Moscow in the parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). According to the head of the Duma Committee on international Affairs Leonid Slutsky, the Deputy will be able to combine the posts of the heads of both delegations in international parliamentary organizations.
From the lower house of Parliament, delegation to the OSCE PA was composed of seven of the party members, including former chief sanitary doctor of Russia Gennady Onishchenko. It also included one representative from the other factions.
The Russian delegation in PACE was deprived of substantive powers in April 2014 because of the events in the East of Ukraine and Crimea. In response, Russia stopped its participation in the Assembly. This year Russia did not submit an application for the authority, although paid a fee to the Council of Europe, intended including to work to the PACE.