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US senators, on Moscow trip, invite Russian lawmakers to Washington
MOSCOW, Aug 6, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A group of US senators, on a visit to
Moscow on Monday, said they have invited Russian lawmakers to Washington
later this year in a bid to help ease tensions between the two countries.
On the second trip by US politicians to the Russian capital in just over a
month, the delegation is this time being led by high-profile Republican
lawmaker senator Rand Paul.
Paul said that members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the upper house
of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, had been invited “to come
to the United States to meet with us in Washington.”
“I think this is incredibly important,” the US lawmaker was quoted as
saying in translated comments by Interfax news agency.
The “main aim of the trip” was to “create a dialogue” and “improve
relations” between Moscow and Washington, Paul added.
US President Donald Trump has come under fire for failing to challenge
Vladimir Putin over election meddling at their summit in Helsinki last month.
And Paul is the only Republican lawmaker to stand by Trump during that
controversy.
The head of the Federation Council’s foreign affairs committee, Konstantin
Kosachev, suggested that a meeting in Washington might take place “as early
as during the fall session, that is, before the end of this year.”
He said he saw the current trip by US senators to Moscow as “especially
valuable when other American politicians are making efforts to portray any
contact with Russian politicians as toxic.”
Kosachev dismissed new accusations that Russia had meddled in US elections.
“There was no meddling in 2016. Certainly it will not happen during the
ongoing election campaign either,” he said.
At the beginning of July, a group of US senators met with Russian officials
ahead of the Helsinki summit between Trump and Putin. They also met with
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
BSS/AFP/MRI/2000 hrs