Russia asks Switzerland to grant two of its deputies the right to enter its borders

The Russian Embassy in Switzerland has requested that Federation Council speaker Valentina Matvienko and head of the Duma's International Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky be granted permission to enter the country to attend the BRICS forum.

Matvienko and Slutsky are the European Union sanctions list, which Switzerland ratified. The deputies are planning to take part in the BRICS summit and Inter-Parliamentary Union session to be held in Bern on October 21-27, 2016.

Matvienko's name is also on the United States sanctions list. In August 2015, the United States did not give Matvienko a visa and she was forced to abandon her trip to New York, where she hoped to partake in Inter-Parliamentary Union events.

In July 2015, the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs refused to grant an entry visa to then-Duma speaker Sergei Naryshkin. Naryshkin was to head the Russian delegation at the session of OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Helsinki. In like of Finland's refusal to issue a visa to Naryshkin, the entire Russian delegation refused to participate in the event.

Matvienko, Slutsky, Naryshkin, and dozens of other Russian politicians, officials, and public figures are on the European Union and United States "black lists" as a result of Russia's role in the Ukrainian crisis.