BUENOS AIRES, April 22. /TASS/. The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) passed a resolution on Thursday to suspend Russia’s observer status in the organization over the situation in Ukraine.
"With 25 votes in favor, 0 against, 8 abstentions and one absent, the Permanent Council approves the resolution ‘Suspension of the Status of the Russian Federation as a Permanent Observer of the Organization of American States,’" the organization said in a Twitter post.
The countries that abstained were Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Mexico, Salvador, Honduras, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Venezuela was among those who voted in favor, but the country’s representative to the organization was appointed by the opposition, not the official government.
According to the document, the council ‘Resolves to immediately suspend the status of the Russian Federation as a Permanent Observer to the Organization of American States <…> until the Russian government ceases its hostilities, withdraws all military forces and equipment from Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders and returns to a path of dialogue and diplomacy."
Anti-Russian statements by Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) Luis Almagro, who spoke allegedly on behalf of the organization in support of the United States’ anti-Russian sanctions, are regrettable, the Russian foreign ministry said last week.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories. After that the US, the EU, the UK and a number of other states announced that they would impose sanctions against Russian legal entities and individuals.