Russia: Sanctions against Russian MPs amount to 'political persecution' - Matviyenko

Speaker of the Russian Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko held a press conference in Moscow, Thursday, to address the US decision to restrict visa conditions for Russian MPs. Matviyenko referred to these measures as "savagery and medievalism," stating that the restrictions were a "distortion of the meaning of the parliamentary movement, because it is parliamentarians who have to build bridges between countries and between people at any time." Matviyenko also stated that "if we are limited in this, limited in the expression of our points of view, which do not coincide with Washington’s position, it is nothing but political persecution." The speaker of the Russian Federation Council made her comments after receiving a visa with restrictions that stop her from participating in the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s fourth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament and its 10th Meeting of Women Speakers of Parliament, taking place in the United Nations Headquarters in New York from August 31 to September 2.