Only Belarus May Back Up Russia in Ljubljana
The foreign ministries’ meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE, begins in Ljubljana today, December 5, 2005. Most likely, Russia will have to go through hard times at the meeting, once it faces an ultimatum demand to execute Istanbul agreements in part of pulling out the troops from Transdniestria and Georgia. Moreover, some countries may put forward a resolution condemning Russia’s new bill on nonprofit organizations.
“The OSCE’s problem is that it was created as a forum for dialog on three dimensions of security – military and political, economic and humanitarian, but has lost this function in the recent years,” said Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov before he left for Ljubljana. Moscow expects the meeting to “launch a real reform of the organization, pass definite resolutions and the 2006 plan of reforms.”
But the most likely scenario is quite different. GUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova) intends to come out in a united front against Moscow, forcing the execution of Istanbul agreements, which, among other things, commit Moscow to pull out its troops from Georgia and Transdniestria. Another point of concern is the Kremlin’s course on tightening control over the activities of nonprofit organizations in Russia and the future bill related to them.
In the meeting, Russia may refuse to yield to the pressure and even deny sealing a final political declaration. Should it happen, it would be the dead failure for the event.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 05, 2005
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