Armenian MP Lusine Badalyan denied entry to Russia

Lusine Badalyan, an MP from the Armenian National Assembly’s Civil Contract faction and chair of its Standing Committee on Health Care, has been denied entry to Russia, where she was due to attend a regular meeting of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly’s Standing Commission on Social Policy and Human Rights on 15 October.

Badalyan announced this in a post on her Facebook page.

“Today, 14 October, I planned to travel to St Petersburg to attend tomorrow’s regular meeting of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly’s Standing Commission on Social Policy and Human Rights.

“As a member of the Armenian National Assembly’s delegation to the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly, I was due to take part in the meeting, which has 16 items on its agenda.

“However, I was denied entry to the Russian Federation on the grounds that I was banned from entering the country. The reason is unknown.

“It is a strange and concerning situation when a member of a national parliamentary delegation is not allowed to travel to the headquarters of an international parliamentary organisation to perform their official duties and participate in the commission’s work,” the post said.