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Russia Agrees the OSCE Has a Budget in Exchange for Far-Reaching Reform
Russia and the United States have agreed to maintain the amount of payments to the OSCE budget this year. Outraged by the OSCE policy in the territory of the former Soviet Union, Russia had threatened to trim contribution but gave in in exchange for the comprehensive reform of the OSCE.
Russia and the US have reached a deal to save the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The agreement in principle, reached in Moscow last week, should mean that the OSCE has a budget in place by the time President George W. Bush visits the Russian capital on May 9. But the deal only lasts until the end of the year and sets far-reaching reform of the OSCE as the price of further Russian acquiescence, the Financial Times reported.
At the end of last year, Russia blocked 2005 budget of the OSCE. Then Boris Gryzlov, speaker of the RF State Duma, told the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Vienna that Russia intends to trim its contribution to the budget of the above organization. Russia is one of the core contributors, it accounts for 9 percent of the OSCE budget, Gryzlov stressed. The statement of the Duma’s speaker was made in the wake of too active involvement of the OSCE in internal affairs of Russia’s neighbors. In particular, the OSCE denounced elections in Ukraine, while the CIS observers said everything was OK there. As the elections were followed by uprising thought by Moscow as the U.S.–inspired, Russian President Vladimir Putin felt compelled to lash out at the OSCE observers, calling their activities “inappropriate and biased.”
According to the FT, the outline deal reached last week in Moscow establishes that OSCE members will contribute to the organisation's budget in the same proportions as in 2004, but also establishes that far-reaching reform of the OSCE's priorities will have to be agreed this year.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 12, 2005
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