French parliamentarian plans to bring new delegation to Russia in October

France’s National Assembly deputy and co-chairman of the “French-Russian Dialogue” association Thierry Mariani has told France Info on Monday he plans to visit Russia again in October with a new delegation of French parliamentarians.

Talking about his visit to Crimea last week, Mariani said: “I led the delegation of 10 National Assembly deputies and senators. However, many more people wanted to go on this trip. I had to refuse them. We will visit Russia in October during another trip.”

The delegation of French parliamentarians visited Crimea on July 23-24. This is the first visit of West European parliamentarians to Crimea and Sevastopol since March 2014, when the majority of Crimean residents voted to join Russia at a referendum. Mariani said the aim of his trip is to observe the situation on the peninsula.