ABSTRACT: Letter whereby the First Secretary of the Radical party Sergio Stanzani addresses himself to the President of the Supreme Soviet of USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, asking him to grant passports and visas to the Soviet citizens invited to take part in the Radical Party's Federal Council.

Rome, 3 July 1989

To the President of the Supreme Soviet of USSR

Secretary-General of the PCUS

Mikhail Gorbachev

Mr President and Secretary-General,

we are writing to you directly to point out that we have addressed the request for the concession of passports and visas to a number of Soviet citizens who have been invited to take part in our Federal Council scheduled for 26-31 July in Strasbourg, on the occasion of the opening of the new European Parliament through normal diplomatic means to the governmental and political authorities of the Union of Socialist soviet Republics, via the Consulate of Paris.

The request concerns first of all Mrs Evghenia Debranskaja (Moscow), whom our Party's congress, which was held in Budapest on 22-26 April 1989, elected fully-fledged member of the Federal Council. We ask this Soviet citizen and comrade of ours to be allowed to take part in all the meetings of our federal council as well as to this one in Strasbourg.

Moreover, we invited the following persons are observers: Ekaterina Podolzeva (Leningrad), Nikolaj Khramov (Moscow), Yurij Afanasiev (deputy, Moscow), Vitalij Korotich (deputy, Moscow), Lev Michajlovic Timoveev (Moscow), Sergeij Ivanovic Grigorianc (Moscow).

We have taken the liberty of writing to you because we know that the procedures for the concession of passports and visas are normally slower.

We confide that, despite the relative proximity of the event, all our guests will be placed in the conditions to take part in the council from the beginning. We know that we do not need to resort to the scrupulous application of the Treaty of Helsinki. We take the liberty of underlining the important contribution that this participation of Soviet citizens can give to our debate on the perspectives of the process of perestroika and transparency under way in the USSR and on the relations between the USSR and the European Community.

We would also like to inform you that the Radical Party, which has operated as a prevalently Italian political force, two years ago chose to transform itself into a transnational political movement, deciding not to take part in the internal political competition and in the life of the national institutions of each country, starting from Italy. The Radical Party has members of different political orientation and religious faith, but who all share the desire to contribute to the solution of the major problems of our time (democracy, human rights, control of new technologies, safeguard of the planet from the risks of an environmental catastrophe, struggle against hunger and underdevelopment.

The first secretary Sergio Stanzani

I have asked Maurice Duval, member of the radical party's secretariat, to give a copy of this letter to the Soviet ambassador in Paris. Copies of the letter have also been entrusted to the Italian Foreign Minister and to the Soviet ambassador in Rome.