Allowing the group to attend the OSCE session in Warsaw would violate “solidarity with Ukraine,” Poland’s envoy said
Russian officials won’t attend the fall meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Warsaw next week, after Poland rejected their visas, a member of the Russian delegation said on Wednesday.
“We received an outrageous response from the head of the Polish delegation to the OSCE parliamentary assembly,” Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy chair of the Russian Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, said in parliament, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.
The Polish envoy, Barbara Bartus, “literally said that she does not see any possibility” of allowing Russian or Belarusian delegates to take part in the assembly, as to do so would “violate the principle of solidarity with Ukraine,” Dzhabarov continued, adding that he predicts similar problems when the OSCE meets again in February in Austria, and in July in Canada.
Poland will also deny visas to Russian officials planning on attending a separate OSCE ministerial meeting in Lodz in December, its foreign ministry told Reuters on Friday. “We’re not giving them visas,” spokesman Lukasz Jasina stated. In comments to AFP, Jasina singled out Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, saying Poland was “not expecting” him to attend.
Russia has been a participant in the OSCE since the Soviet Union signed the Helsinki Accords in 1975. The organization’s monitoring mission in eastern Ukraine began in 2014 but was pulled out just prior to the beginning of Russia’s military operation in February. Russia had repeatedly accused the group of ignoring violations by Kiev.
Members of Russia’s delegation to the OSCE were also denied visas to attend the organization’s last meeting in the UK in July
The answer should be really obvious on this one. Russia and Belarus should leave the OSCE and certainly not fund them in any way. Also they need to withdraw their embassies from Warsaw. The Poles already refuse to protect their diplomatic installations there. There was another attack on the Russian Embassy a couple of days ago and the Polish police just stood by and watched it. If Russia and Belarus were to made those moves it might wake Europe up to the seriousness of their situation. Just reporting on these things and protesting mildly about them serves no purpose if you aren’t willing to take any other action.
Hi Uncle Bob – I agree – as soon as I started reading it – I thuoght – well, I don’t think Russia should be supporting this organization – I forgot what it was for – it takes the Russians a long time to saddle the horse – but they ride really fast once they’re on it
I don’t think the village where the two farmers died, will be impressed either.
In the long term, the nations of Europe benefit from a stable means of discussing, and constructively resolving high level issues concerning the security of Europe as a whole. This is an aspect of diplomacy and statesmanship.
The current decision of the Polish government does not contribute to that. It is irrational, meaning without mental reasoning.
It’s unlikely that the bylaws of the OSCE allow a rotating chair to exclude participation of other members for any reason, let alone petulant ones.
I can understand the temptation to have Russia and Belarus quit the organization. But that would be counterproductive.
Often such inanities can be addressed by letting the inane do so, publicly, obviously, so all may clearly see their self embarrassment.
The Polish – Ukrainian false flag did not go well, and Duda is angry…