The event took place as part of preparations for the Leo Tolstoy International Peace Prize awards ceremony.
Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev addressed the roundtable discussion War and Peace in the 21st Century: Parliamentary Peacekeeping Activities in the Context of the Transformation of the System of International Relations.
The event took place during preparations for the first Leo Tolstoy International Peace Prize awards ceremony.
Konstantin Kosachev noted the importance of the upcoming awards ceremony, named after literary classic and great pacifist Leo Tolstoy. “Not only was Leo Tolstoy a great pacifist, but he was also a great patriot of his country. He defended Russia’s Crimea during the Crimean War of 1853–1856, and received orders and medals for bravery there. His pacifism did not run counter to fulfilling his military and patriotic duty. Today, people often confuse these notions,” the Deputy Federation Council Speaker said.
During his remarks, he also recalled that, over the last few decades, Western countries had exerted substantial efforts in order to demolish the long-time capital of interparliamentary cooperation, while trying to subordinate international parliamentary organisations to their interests.
“We saw how PACE was virtually wrecked as a platform for dialogue. The same happened to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation and the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy became the next targets of their destructive efforts.”
“Russia strives to preserve the principles of equitable collaboration between parliaments in organisations, not dominated by the collective West, such as the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum, the ASEAN Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the African Union and, of course, forums of organisations in the post-Soviet region – the CIS and the CSTO parliamentary assemblies.”
“One of the goals of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, established in 1889, was international arbitration, that is, the resolution of international disputes. It is hardly surprising that the Union’s leaders, Frederic Passy and William Randall Cremer, became the first recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize,” Konstantin Kosachev said in conclusion.
The Leo Tolstoy International Peace Prize Foundation will confer the prize for activities aiming to help strengthen peace and international cooperation, involve the international public at large in the global struggle for peace, to achieve charitable, cultural and educational goals, including efforts to create Russia’s positive image worldwide.