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West led OSCE military-political dialogue into 'induced coma' — Russian diplomat

According to Konstantin Gavrilov, the security dialogue is being diluted by proposals to discuss other, essentially extraneous, issues, such as the impact of military activities on mental health or the theme of disinformation

VIENNA, December 20. /TASS/. Western countries have put a military-political dialogue at the level of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) "into an induced coma," Konstantin Gavrilov, head of Russia’s delegation to the Vienna talks on military security and arms control, said in an interview with TASS on Wednesday.

"We must acknowledge that the military-political situation in the OSCE remains consistently difficult and there have been no major breakthroughs since 2022," Gavrilov stated. "The West has driven the dialogue on this issue into an induced coma, pointing out at the same time that there will be no constructive talks until the conflict in Ukraine is over."

The representatives of the United States and its allies are conspicuously silent regarding Russia’s proposals to engage in a preliminary consideration of issues concerning the prevention of military incidents and the reduction of military threats, Gavrilov continued.

According to him, the security dialogue is being diluted by proposals to discuss other, essentially extraneous, issues, such as the impact of military activities on mental health or the theme of disinformation.

"We were against such discussions and blocked them," Gavrilov said. "Such issues are actually important, but they must be discussed on specially designated platforms."

"It's like discussing Greek philosophy in a class on the theorem of Pythagoras, which is also related in certain aspects to the great mathematician, but is simultaneously focused on some niche topic in a totally different dimension," he added.

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