During a speech by the Speaker of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation, Valentina Matvienko, at the conference of parliament speakers in Geneva, dozens of delegates left the hall in protest.
Points of attention
- Delegates at the Geneva conference staged a demarche against Russian politician Matviyenko by leaving the hall during her speech.
- The Ukrainian delegation supported this protest as an act against aggression and a show of solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
- The incident sparked controversy as some expressed indignation at Matviyenko's presence at the conference.
Matviyenko was ignored by dozens of delegates at a conference in Geneva
The corresponding video was published by the Vice Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Olena Kondratyuk
In it, you can see several dozen members of the delegations leaving the hall in connection with Matviyenko's speech.
I am proud of all our partners and colleagues! This is a demarche against the aggressor, this is support for the people of Ukraine!
Details about who left the hall or stayed are currently unknown.
Before that, the Council expressed indignation at the presence of the Russian delegation and called on conference participants to avoid any interactions with it.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Georgy Tykhyi said that Matviyenko's place is "in the dock, not at international conferences," and her admission to Geneva "is shameful and should not have happened."
The World Conference of Speakers of Parliaments meets every 5 years. This is the first such event since the Russian Federation's full-scale attack on Ukraine.
