Russian Federation Council to abstain from contacts with US, Cyprus — newspaper

The International Affairs Committee of the Russian Federation Council (FC) has refused to attend a meeting of the US-Russia Business Council due to the sanctions the West imposed on Russia and its citizens, the Izvestia daily writes on Tuesday.
The Federation Council members have also proposed to suspend active work in the EU countries that have the most aggressive attitude to Moscow and Russians, the newspaper writes with reference to acting head of the FC International Affairs Committee Vladimir Dzhabarov.
“We have never had great inter-parliamentary relations with the United States, and the current attempts to welcome the Americans at the first opportunity seem not right after our former colleague — senator and currently the head of state (US President Barack Obama), called the Ebola virus the first global threat, and Russia — the second,” deputy head of the International Affairs Committee Andrey Klimov told Izvestia.
According to him, the committee's decision applies only to official visits, not private ones that the parliamentarians may make at their discretion.
The Federation Council members also proposed not to create the working group on parliamentary cooperation with the parliament of Cyprus.

“The Central Bank of Cyprus under the American pressure has made an emission of €1 billion on the extremely unfavorable terms for Russian businessmen that switched to it from the collapsed Laiki Bank: instead of 84%, they got 18%. All the steps are unfriendly. A week ago, Russian businessmen met with the country’s former president who explained the actions of official authorities by the US pressure,” Izvestia quotes FC member Igor Morozov as saying.
Head of the Institute for Political Studies Sergey Markov says that the Federation Council has made a right move, refusing to maintain contacts with the United States at this level.
“We have been in a state of Cold War with the United States for a long time already, moreover, we have entered the hybrid war situation: the combination of sanctions and diplomatic, economic and information war,” he noted. “Russia should take a break now and hold the dialogue only with the countries, with which cooperation is possible,” Markov said.