MOSCOW, December 11. /TASS/. The systemic crisis that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is experiencing has been caused by political bias and inability of this body to develop collective decisions on jointly countering terrorism and solving the Ukrainian crisis, experts polled by TASS say.
In a statement at the closing session of the 22nd meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council late last week in Belgrade, Russia’s delegation said the participants of the organization failed to agree on a range of documents on the most pressing security issues, including forming a broad international anti-terrorist coalition.
The delegation also expressed regret as due to political bias, some countries failed to agree on a document on the OSCE role in solving the Ukrainian crisis and the fight against drug threat.
For many years, the OSCE has been under pressure from both the European Union and NATO led by the United States and therefore Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has made a diagnosis for the organization as a "systemic crisis," the deputy dean of the world economy and world politics department at the Higher School of Economics, Andrey Suzdaltsev, told TASS.
"Back in 2008, the expert-level council of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, said the OSCE has turned into Russia’s major foe. The senators and experts noted the anti-Russian stance of the OSCE before Georgia’s aggression against South Ossetia that Russia crushed, and before the Ukrainian crisis."
"Already at that time, seven years ago, the lawmakers posed a question on Russia’s possible withdrawal from the OSCE," Suzdaltsev said.
The expert said literally every meeting of the OSCE and its bodies - the Parliamentary Assembly, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the commissariat on national minorities - is devoted to criticizing Russia for various issues ranging from ecology to sexual minorities rights, "they have no other agenda."
"Meanwhile, the EU countries also have their problems, this also concerns the human rights and the refugees situation, but the OSCE meetings do not raise these issues. This one-sided, biased approach and the drive to present Russia as a ‘semi-continent of evil’ do not allow the Organization to agree on the true important and key decisions for the European security," Suzdaltsev said.
The expert said Russia contributes 5 million euros per year to the OSCE budget and has the right to expect the constructive cooperation with the Organization, and not the rampant criticism.
"At the same time, the Ukrainian crisis has confirmed that Russia should remain the Organization’s member as amid the Donbass conflict only one international body is operating, namely the OSCE monitoring mission involving Russian representatives. Russia has allocated 1.59 million euros for its activity. Unfortunately, the mission’s monitoring activity is not really objective and is in favor of Kiev. Nevertheless, Russia puts hopes on the OSCE mission’s activity for implementing the Minsk agreements, and that’s why is not raising the issue of leaving the OSCE," Suzdaltsev said.
The director of the Political Studies Institute, Civic Chamber Member Sergey Markov, said the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has turned into a tool of falsifying election results in various countries.
"I worked as Russia’s observer at elections in Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Greece, and I can say that the OSCE observers are politically biased. It’s a shame on the OSCE that they have declared legitimate the parliamentary and presidential elections in Ukraine after the coup d’etat in Kiev last year," Markov told TASS.
"There are complaints against the activity of the OSCE monitoring mission in the conflict zone in Ukraine’s south-east. The mission’s members register Kiev’s violations of the Minsk agreements unwillingly and insufficiently and on the contrary, constantly point to violations of these accords by the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics," the expert said.
"The main cause of the crisis seen in the OSCE is that it is dominated by the US that forces its Western allies to work to ensure American geopolitical interests," Markov said.
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