City peace visit to Russia under fire

PLANS to send three Labour councillors to a peace conference at Coventry’s twin city in Russia have been criticised as “wrong” in the wake of the Salisbury nerve agent attack.

The Labour group wants to send deputy leader Cllr Abdul Khan, Cllr John Mutton and Cllr Pervez Akhtar to a conference in Volgograd from October 27 to November 2.

Labour hopes the event will promote peace and celebrate Coventry’s long-standing and historic relationship with Volgograd ahead of the 75th anniversary of the link in 2019.

But Conservatives have called for them to reject the invitation to attend in light of events in Salisbury, labelling the decision to send three councillors as “ridiculous”.

At a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, October 2, Cllr Tim Sawdon (Con, Wainbody) said: “I find actually the prospect of a peace meeting conference in Russia at the moment as somewhat of an oxymoron.

“I think this is the sending the wrong signal.

“We have seen in recent weeks the events in Salisbury. The last country on earth that seems to be promoting peace and reconciliation is Russia.

“I do appreciate that there is strong links and I know the history of it.

“I don’t want to suggest we should break up the twinning arrangement.

“But the thing is with friendships, sometimes you have to say to your friend when you have gone wrong and I think it’s important that we are able to say to Volgograd ‘you need to be telling your government what it is doing is wrong.’

“We should be telling the United Nations you should not be holding this conference in Russia as it is not appropriate.”

Conservative group leader Cllr Gary Ridley had previously criticised the trip as a waste of taxpayers’ money, but Cllr John Mutton stated most of the costs are being found by Volgograd and the three councillors attending.

He added: “I’m quite appalled at what I hear.

“The people of Coventry didn’t withdraw the hands of friendship to our former enemies of Germany after the Second World War.

“In fact we did the opposite and helped rebuild Dresden and Kiel so that we could put the past behind us and strive to lead to a peaceful future for all of our countries.

“That was exactly the same with Stalingrad as it was then.”

“The twinning movement started between Volgograd and Coventry in 1944, and even during the days of the Iron Curtain and the Cold War, that still led to the people of Volgograd and Coventry remaining friends.”

Deputy leader Cllr Abdul Khan slammed the call as “a simple cheap political manoeuvre”.

He added: “It’s very naive. We are not going to snub the invitation.”