During his official visit to Switzerland on 18 and 19 February, the chairman of the Russian State Duma, Mr Vyacheslav Volodin, was received by the president of the National Council, Dominique de Buman (CVP/FR). This was a return visit following on from a trip paid to Russia last year by a delegation from the Federal Assembly led by Mr Jürg Stahl (SVP/ ZH) during his year as president of the National Council.

​During his visit, the chairman of the State Duma (lower chamber of the Russian Federal Assembly), Mr Vyacheslav Volodin, was accompanied by a delegation of high-level representatives from the State Duma and regional Russian parliaments. On 18 February, the Russian delegation visited the Einstein Museum in Bern (Helvetiaplatz), accompanied by the mayor of Bern, Alec von Graffenried. In the evening, Mr de Buman hosted an official working dinner for the chairman of the Duma and his delegation.

An official meeting between Mr de Buman and his Russian counterpart took place in the Parliament Building on 19 February, and was also attended by other Swiss members of parliament including Marina Carobbio-Guscetti (SP/TI), first vice president of the National Council, Elisabeth Schneider-Schneiter (CVP/BL), president of the National Council’s Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC), Filippo Lombardi (CVP/TI), president of the Council of States FAC and president of the Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and National Council member Margret Kiener-Nellen (SP/BE), president of the Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE (OSCE-PA). The talks focused on strengthening economic and commercial exchanges between the two countries, as well as the return of the Russian parliamentary delegation to the Council of Europe and the resumption of Russia’s payments to the institution.

Concerning the Russian presidential elections on 18 March, Mr de Buman informed his Russian counterpart that two Swiss members of parliament would be participating in the OSCE-PA observer mission to Russia, namely National Council members Margret Kiener-Nellen (SP/BE), as president of the Delegation to the OSCE-PA, and Niklaus-Samuel Gugger (PDC/ZH), as a member of the FAC. He took the opportunity to emphasise the great importance to Switzerland of the OSCE and that the Russian elections should be legitimate and transparent.

On the subject of international affairs, Mr de Buman reminded his counterpart of Switzerland’s policy of neutrality and of its humanitarian tradition. He expressed Switzerland’s serious concerns with regard to the humanitarian situation in Syria. For his part, Mr Volodin welcomed Switzerland’s neutrality, which allows it to listen to all sides on the international scene.

Mr Volodin also paid a courtesy visit to Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis, the head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.