Geneva (dpa) — Valentina Matvienko, Russia’s most powerful woman and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, appeared at a high-level forum in Switzerland on Monday, despite being under Western sanctions for her support of Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Matvienko, chairwoman of the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament, used her appearance to warn of the dangers of global conflict.
“The experience of two world wars must serve as a warning against a third,” the 76-year-old said.
State media in Russia broadcast images of Matvienko arriving in Switzerland aboard a government aircraft, where she was welcomed with flowers on the tarmac.
She is attending a multi-day meeting of parliamentary speakers hosted by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Geneva. Other participants include German Bundestag President Julia Klöckner.
Matvienko presented herself in Switzerland as an ambassador of understanding and called for a peace that would guarantee the “security of all nations.”
Her remarks stand in sharp contrast to her vocal support of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2022.
The Kremlin has long claimed it launched the war to protect its national security from Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO.
Matvienko is not the only sanctioned official at the event. Russian Duma deputies Leonid Slutsky and Pyotr Tolstoy — both of whom are also subject to Western sanctions — were in attendance as part of the Russian delegation.
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