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Russian journalists’ revoked accreditations at OSCE event must be restored — ministry

The OSCE Ministerial Council will be held in Poland on December 1-2
Russian Foreign Ministry Vladimir Gerdo/TASS
Russian Foreign Ministry
© Vladimir Gerdo/TASS

MOSCOW, December 1. /TASS/. Moscow calls for a prompt restoration of revoked accreditations of correspondents from Russia’s news agencies TASS and RIA Novosti, who were bound to work at the 29th Ministerial Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Russian Foreign Ministry stated on social network platforms on Thursday.

"This is a blatant act of the political censorship and a stark violation of the OSCE obligations," the statement reads. "We call for the prompt restoration of [cancelled] accreditations of Russian correspondents and for a resolute response on behalf of [OSCE] Representative on Freedom of the Media Teresa Ribeiro."

The Polish OSCE Chairmanship earlier announced that Russia had been invited to an OSCE Ministerial Meeting set to be held in Lodz on December 1-2 as invitations were always sent to all OSCE member states. However, news emerged later that the Polish Foreign Ministry had denied entry to Russia’s delegation led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The Russian Foreign Ministry slammed the move as unprecedented, inflammatory and incompatible with the status of the organization’s chairmanship.

Russian Permanent Representative to the OSCE Alexander Lukashevich was selected to head the country’s delegation to the meeting in the wake of Warsaw’s decision.

On November 16, news broke that the Polish Foreign Ministry had refused to issue visas to the Russian lawmakers who had planned to attend the fall session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Warsaw on November 24-26.