‘Appeasement of the aggressor’

Sanctioned Russian Federation Council speaker attends global summit in Switzerland, uses platform to repeat Kremlin war narrative

Despite being under international sanctions, Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko traveled to Switzerland on Sunday to attend a global parliamentary summit, where she used the platform to repeat Kremlin talking points about the war in Ukraine. Her presence drew sharp condemnation from Ukrainian officials and Russian opposition figures, who pointed to what they saw as the hypocrisy of allowing sanctioned officials to participate. Swiss authorities, for their part, said they are obligated to admit official delegates attending international events. Here’s what Matviyenko said at the summit — and why her presence there provoked such a strong reaction.

A Russian delegation led by Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko has traveled to Switzerland to attend the World Conference of Speakers of Parliament, held from July 29 to 30, and the Summit of Women Speakers of Parliament, which took place on July 28. The delegation also included Federation Council Deputy Speaker Konstantin Kosachev, State Duma Deputy Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy, LDPR party leader Leonid Slutsky, and senators Lilia Gumerova and Andrey Denisov — all of whom are under international sanctions. The group arrived in Geneva on July 27.

Matviyenko has been under sanctions since spring 2014, when she became one of the first high-ranking Russian officials targeted in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea. The sanctions allowed exceptions for participation in international parliamentary events, enabling her to visit Switzerland in 2016 (alongside Leonid Slutsky) and again in 2019, as well as France in 2016, in her capacity as Federation Council speaker.

However, this visit marks the first by such a high-level Russian delegation to Europe since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In explaining why Matviyenko was allowed entry, Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs noted that national authorities are obliged to facilitate travel by official delegates participating in events hosted by international organizations.

While E.U. airspace has been closed to Russian aircraft since the beginning of the full-scale war, Italy allowed the Russian government plane to pass through its airspace. With other E.U. countries denying access, the delegation flew from Moscow to Geneva via Turkey and the Mediterranean Sea.

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Justifying the war

In her speech at the Summit of Women Speakers of Parliament, Matviyenko repeated key talking points of Russia’s state propaganda about the war in Ukraine. She accused Ukraine of “shelling peaceful areas of Donbas” and killing civilians prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion, which she characterized as “a forced intervention.”

“Please, come to Donbas and visit the Alley of Angels, which commemorates the memory of these murdered children,” Matviyenko said.

Russia was forced to intervene to stop this bloodshed, to stop the killing of peaceful people. And yesterday — July 27 — was the Day of Remembrance of Child Victims of the War in Donbas. I always urge people to look each other in the eye and speak the truth, and to be guided by facts, not invented stories.

She went on to accuse Western countries of “anti-Russian rhetoric” and waging an “information war.” Matviyenko called for an end to sanctions and urged the international community to “stand up for peace.”

The backlash

Matviyenko’s appearance in Geneva drew sharp criticism from Ukrainian officials. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi called her participation “disgraceful,” saying her rightful place was “in the dock, not at international conferences.” He urged other delegates not to shake Matviyenko’s hand, which he said was “covered in Ukrainian blood.”

Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada Deputy Speaker Olena Kondratiuk, a member of Ukraine’s delegation to the summit, described the inclusion of Russian officials as “appeasement of the aggressor” and “hypocrisy.” “Honestly, my first instinct was to turn around and go home,” she said.

Russian opposition figures and social media users also condemned Matviyenko’s presence in Europe. The Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) called it “a disgraceful, creeping rollback of sanctions” and warned that the trip could set a precedent that would “nullify” international efforts to pressure Vladimir Putin’s regime. “[Their] logic is simple: if they let her into Europe once, why not let her in again?”

“This is someone who took part in the decision to launch the invasion of Ukraine [as a member of Russia’s Security Council], and she just flew into Geneva,” wrote FBK director Ivan Zhdanov. “What a disgrace.”

Many social media users also accused European countries of hypocrisy, noting that Russian dissidents who fled the country over their opposition to the regime continue to face discrimination due to their citizenship, and that ordinary Russian tourists struggle to obtain visas — while senior officials directly responsible for the war are allowed to travel there. Others recalled inflammatory statements from members of the Russian delegation, including a past threat by Pyotr Tolstoy to “wipe out those European humanists with napalm.”