Ryssland har meddelat att de avser hålla omröstningar i det ryska parlamentets båda kamrar om att lämna OSSE:s parlamentariska församling (OSSE PF). Ett eventuellt beslut berör bara den parlamentariska sidan och deltagandet i OSSE:s Permanenta råd i Wien består. Ryssland beslutade under 2023 att inte betala den årliga avgiften till OSSE PF och har därmed ingen rösträtt i församlingen, därtill har de nekats inresa till församlingens möten vid ett flertal tillfällen då de hållits i bland annat Storbritannien, Polen och Kanada.
Reuters skriver den 14 februari 2024:
Feb 14 (Reuters) – Russia’s parliament will vote on Feb. 21 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.
The OSCE, which counts Ukraine, the U.S. and Russia among its 57-members, is the successor to a Cold War-era organisation for Soviet and Western powers to engage. 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.
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.
(This story has been corrected to show that the vote is on suspending Moscow’s participation in the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, not OSCE itself, in the headline)
Reporting by Lidia Kelly and Oleksandr Kozhukhar; Writing by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Sonali Paul
