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Finland's entry ban of Russian officials harms relationship: FM

Xinhua, July 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

Finland's latest refusal to grant entry to Russian State Duma speaker and five other officials into the country is an "openly unfriendly" act that damages bilateral relations, Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

Finland earlier in the day said that it has barred six Russian officials including the speaker, Sergei Naryshkin, from attending a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly held in Helsinki from July 5 to 9. Some Russian officials have been placed under an EU travel ban since the outbreak of the Ukrainians crisis.

After being denied entry, the Russian delegation decided to skip the session. Meanwhile, Finland's Ambassador to Russia Hannu Himanen was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

"We consider such actions openly unfriendly, inconsistent with "principles of good neighborliness", and damaging to Russian- Finnish relations," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in an online statement.

EU sanctions "cannot justify Finland's noncompliance with its international obligations," especially when Finland is the host of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly annual meeting, the statement said.

Russia would not send its delegation to the high-level meeting in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Helsinki Accords.

In spite of the incident, Naryshkin told reporters the Russian delegation would continue working in the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and take part in the next meeting to be held in Mongolia.

The Finnish authorities denied entry of Russian officials under the pressure from Brussels and Washington, Interfax news agency quoted Naryshkin as saying. Endite