Slovenian parliament speaker set to visit Russia

Zoran Stevanović has become the first Speaker of the Slovenian National Assembly in four years to establish contact with the speaker of the Russian parliament, the Resnica party said today, announcing that Stevanović will visit Moscow as soon as he receives an invitation.

The Speaker of Parliament has said several times that he wants to visit Russia, CE Report quotes STA.

The Social Democrats (SD), meanwhile, said they expect explanations from the government regarding the announcement.

“Peace cannot be achieved through war. Therefore, it is necessary to engage in dialogue with both sides – Russia and Ukraine – and work toward reaching a peace agreement,” the party said in a statement today.

The Speaker of Parliament also published the statement on his Facebook profile.

The party has so far not responded to questions about whether Stevanović spoke with the speaker of the lower or upper house of the Russian parliament, or when the conversation took place. It also did not say when he expects to receive an invitation to visit Moscow.

The fact that the speakers of the Slovenian and Russian parliaments had exchanged views for the first time in four years was reported on Sunday by the Russian state news agency TASS, which cited Yuri Pilipson, from the European Department of Russia’s Foreign Ministry.

Pilipson welcomed the exchange as a sign of rational conduct by European politicians advocating the restoration of dialogue with Russia, TASS reported. He also said that the contact between the two parliamentary speakers had taken place at Ljubljana’s initiative.

Photo: Pexels (Free Stock Photos)