DUMA SAYS EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION NOT HELPFUL.

On April 24, the lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, unanimously passed a resolution asserting that another resolution passed earlier this month by the European Parliament which advocated a negotiated end to the war in Chechnya and claimed that Russian officials had not done nearly enough to investigate alleged abuses in the republic “was made in an anti-Russian spirit, was extremely politicized, and bears a clearly… unconstructive character.” The chair of the Duma’s foreign affairs committee, Dmitry Rogozin, opined during discussions held in Strasbourg on April 23 that Russia had made a “mistake” in joining the Council of Europe. On the other hand, Sergei Mironov, the speaker of the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, played down Rogozin’s complaint, instead urging closer cooperation between Russia and Europe (AP, April 24).