Russia turns its back on OSCE, Arctic Council
Russia’s parliament will vote on 21 February on suspending the country’s participation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation (OSCE), Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said on Tuesday (13 February).
The OSCE, which counts Ukraine, the US and Russia among its 57-members, is the successor to the 1975 Helsinki Process which established the Conference for Security and Co-operation, an organisation which contributed to détente during the Cold War. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the organisation has been largely paralysed by Moscow’s ongoing use of the effective veto each country has.
“It’s time for us to say goodbye to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly,” Volodin said at a meeting of the Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, according to a statement on the Duma’s website.
“The organization absolutely lacks independence, is politicized, and it dances to the tune of Washington. But the worst thing in this situation is that we also pay money, and we are one of the largest payers.”
Both chambers of the Russian parliament, the Duma and the Federation Council, will vote simultaneously on suspending participation and on stopping Moscow’s payments to the OSCE, Volodin said.
With the United Russia party – the ruling faction that supports President Vladimir Putin – holding an overwhelming majority in the parliament, the resolution is unlikely to face opposition.
The Duma may also consider the possibility of Russia leaving other international organisations, the Duma statement said, without naming any.
Ukraine and its Baltic allies, which are Russia’s neighbours, refused to attend the OSCE annual foreign ministers meeting late last year over the presence of Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov there.
Arctic Council frost
Russia has suspended annual payments to the Arctic Council until “real work” resumes with the participation of all member countries, Russia’s RIA state news agency reported, citing the country’s foreign ministry.
“At the moment, Russia’s payment of annual contributions to the budget of the Arctic Council has been suspended until the resumption of real work in this format with the participation of all member countries,” the ministry told RIA.
Cooperation between the Western Arctic states of the intergovernmental body and Moscow came to a freeze after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago.
The Arctic Council was created in 1996 to discuss issues affecting the polar region, ranging from pollution to local economic development to search-and-rescue missions.
The work of the Council, which comprises the eight Arctic states of Finland, Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Russia, Denmark, Canada and the United States, in the past has produced binding agreements on environmental protection and preservation.
But with the end of cooperation with Moscow, about a third of the council’s 130 projects were on hold last year, new projects cannot go ahead and existing ones cannot be renewed.
For now, Russia does not consider leaving the Council, the foreign ministry told RIA.
Last week, Maria Zakharova, spokesperson of the Russian foreign ministry, said that if the Council evolves “into an institution unfriendly to Russia,” then Moscow will consider whether to stay in it, TASS state agency reported.
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