Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks to journalists after addressing the OSCE Permanent Council.
Photo: Reuters
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U.S. Won’t Compromise with Russia over ODIHR
The United States will oppose every move to weaken the OSCE and particularly its election supervisor, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told the reporters in Madrid before the meeting of OSCE’s ministerial council.
Burns, who described the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights as "one of the great success stories of the OSCE," vowed the "United States will oppose every move to weaken the ODIHR."
Burns said the Moscow proposals to reform the system of election monitoring would make ODIHR inefficient and warned Uzbekistan, Belarus and Kazakhstan of facing consequences should they back up Russia.
Yesterday, the White House again rejected the Kremlin’s accusations of influencing ODIHR’s decision to abandon plans to observe the vote at the parliamentary elections in Russia.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin lashed out at Washington November 26, claiming the United States was responsible for ODIHR’s decision not to monitor the elections to Russia’s State Duma. Russia would take into consideration that fact in relations with the United States, Putin promised.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack bluntly refuted the accusations. Regardless, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov lashed out at Washington again after meeting with the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
www.kommersant.com
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