"Russian senators call on European lawmakers to publicly condemn the actions of radical extremists as a manifestation of religious intolerance and take measures to protect the right to freedom of religion of Muslims and representatives of other religions, as well as bring perpetrators to justice," Matviyenko wrote on Telegram.
The Russian upper house speaker added that members of all faiths across Russia, and not only Muslims, have been deeply shocked by the desecration of the Quran. Meanwhile, the "lack of an adequate response to the actions of extremists from the governments and parliaments of European countries" is particularly disturbing, she added.
The controversy erupted last month, when Rasmus Paludan, the leader of the Danish political party Stram Kurs, burned copies of the Quran in Sweden and Denmark in a protest against the Turkish authorities, since they refused to approve Sweden's NATO bid before Stockholm addresses their demands.
Paludan promised to burn the Muslim holy book each Friday until Ankara approves Sweden's bid to join the alliance. A similar protest was carried out by Dutch politician and leader of the anti-immigrant Pegida political movement Edwin Wagensveld in the Netherlands, when he tore out pages from a copy of the Quran and burned them in front of the parliamentary building in The Hague. After the desecration of Quran, Turkish officials stated that "under current conditions" Ankara won't ratify Sweden's accession to NATO.