PACE President, Delegates To Meet Duma Speaker In Moscow

Russia's Speaker of the State Duma Sergei Naryshkin

Leaders of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) are meeting in Moscow on November 13 with Russian Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin and Russia's PACE delegates.

The visit by PACE President Anne Brasseur and others from PACE's presidential committee is part of a dialogue following talks with Naryshkin in Paris in early September.

The visiting delegation also includes PACE Secretary-General Wojciech Sawicki and the heads of PACE's five political groups.

Brasseur and Naryshkin are also to hold separate bilateral talks on November 13.

In April, after the European Union sanctioned Russia for its role in Ukraine’s crisis, Russia’s voting rights in PACE were suspended until January 26, 2015.

European Commission officials have told RFE/RL that EU sanctions against Russia won't be reduced soon, and could be expanded further amid NATO allegations of recent Russian military deployments into eastern Ukraine.