Former US Congressman Dennis Kucinich Stresses Importance of US-Russia Interparliamentary Dialogue

WASHINGTON, September 6. /TASS/. Contacts between Russia and the United States, including at the level of legislators, are necessary so that Russians and Americans can once again see that they have much in common, former US House of Representatives member Dennis Kucinich said in an interview with TASS.

"It's important for Americans who serve the public, members of Congress, to go to Russia and to meet the people, and what you will find out, what American leaders will find out - if you go meet the Russian people, there's many ways in which they're just like us," Kucinich, who represented the US state of Ohio in the lower house of Congress from 1997 to 2013, noted. Kucinich recalled that he was one of the founders of a House working group for strengthening friendship, mutual understanding and cooperation with Russia. "This committee was responsible for helping to build relations and to have exchanges with Russian leaders from the Duma. So I'm glad to see that this has restarted in March," the former congressman emphasized, referring to the fact that in March a State Duma delegation held working meetings in Washington, including with members of Congress. Thus, the Russian-American interparliamentary dialogue, which had remained frozen for many recent years, has effectively resumed.

"I think any kind of diplomatic contact, meetings of the United States Congress and Duma, meetings between our two leaders, [US] President [Donald] Trump and [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin is important. When you meet people personally, it always changes things, especially if you had some kind of idea that there is something wrong with them. That they're evil," Kucinich added, commenting on plans by US legislators to visit Russia in autumn or winter.

"As we knew from years ago, when we saw a joint TV connection between Russia and the United States, we have a lot in common. So we need to relearn that. We need to reach out and meet each other again, and to understand our commonalities, to see that we are looking into the eyes of our brothers and sisters who may speak another language, who may have a different ethnic heritage, but we're all human beings," said the former lawmaker, who ran in the US presidential races in 2004 and 2008 and also served as mayor of Cleveland, Ohio.

"We need to evolve as human beings and come to an understanding of how much we have in common. We have a world that's interconnected and interdependent. We cannot step away from the fact we're all made of the same stuff, and this idea to try to separate us, to try to make us seem so different to each other, is really a falsehood that's sold in the interest of selling guns, building weapons, creating wars that never had to be fought."