OREANDA-NEWS. The head of the Federation Council’s foreign affairs committee, Konstantin Kosachev, called the inclusion of American senators Ron Johnson and Chris Murphy, who said they were denied visas to Russia, a forced reaction. He wrote about this on his Facebook page on Wednesday.

"The Russian stop list appeared as a forced reaction to American personal sanctions, including against parliamentarians. And we always and everywhere clearly indicated to our colleagues in Congress our Russian position: we are ready to eliminate these lists as soon as the American ones are eliminated", the statement said.

Kosachev recalled that the Russian side suggested that the Americans one-time withdraw from the sanctions of parliamentarians for official trips, but there was no reaction to the proposal from the United States. Earlier, US senators Ron Johnson (Republican, from Wisconsin) and Chris Murphy (Democrat, from Connecticut) stated that they were denied entry visas to Russia. Murphy in a statement published on his website, said that he hoped to go to Russia "as part of a bipartisan delegation of Congress".

As the Russian media reported on Tuesday at the Russian Foreign Ministry, Senator Johnson didn't apply for a visa to Russia, he is on the Russian stop list. In the Russian Foreign Ministry, the senator’s statements were called information manipulation. The head of the Duma’s committee on international affairs, Leonid Slutsky, told reporters on Tuesday that the State Duma did not plan to receive delegations of US senators and congressmen in the near future.

For the first time, the media reported a refusal of an entry visa to the Russian Federation to a member of the American Congress in February 2013. Then, Congressman-Republican Chris Smith could not visit Russia. The parliamentarian said that the reason for the refusal is the "Magnitsky Act", which he initiated.