Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (left) listens to Goran Lennmarker, president of the OSCE's parliamentary assembly during talks in Moscow on Friday, Nov. 16, 2007.
Photo: AP
| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
Russia to Cut Down Money Flow to OSCE
Moscow has used the lag between the recent parliamentary and upcoming presidential elections in Russia to launch yet another fierce attack on the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said on Wednesday that the organization had failed to overcome a fundamental crisis and some countries are using it in their own vested interests. The diplomat also regretted that the OSCE does not listen to Moscow’s numerous proposals to reform the organization and added that Russia may decide to cut the financing for it. Kommersant sources report that Russia’s fees in the OSCE’s budget could be halved.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko came with blistering criticism for the OSCE on Wednesday at a news conference in Moscow pointing to several flaws that impede the work of the organization, according to Russia. “Some countries have adopted a course to use the organization to their own ends,” he said. “Actual security problems are outside the OSCE’s scope of activities though they were listed as goals when the organization was first set up. These flaws, according to Mr. Grushko, indicate that the organization has “failed to overcome a fundamental crisis”.
The high-ranking Russian diplomat paid particular attention to the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) whose observers decided not to monitor the recent Russian parliamentary election after they accused Moscow of impeding their work. Alexander Grushko said that the ODIHR “needs a fundamental reform” and Moscow knows how to do it.
The Russian deputy foreign policy chief said Moscow has long been suggesting a common code of rules for the ODIHR’s monitoring activities. He regretted that these “reasonable, modest and balanced” proposals were never heard. The diplomat noted that the reform was still under consideration but he announced that Russia would cut its fees to the OSCE’s budget. “Russia is already cutting the financing of the OSCE,” Alexander Grushko said. “If we look at the evolution of this fee, it is increasingly comes in accordance to the ability of a country to pay.”
Sergey Ryabkov, director of the Foreign Ministry’s European cooperation department, explained to Kommersant that the principle of a country’s paying capacity is a way the budget is formed in the UN. “This is a complex method which takes into account the GDP per capita in every country as well as a number of other factors,” Mr. Ryabov said. He noted, however, that the budget issue should not be linked to a recent political rift between Moscow and the OSCE. “This is not a stick in the wheel but a part of the reforming and putting in order in the budget area,” he said. He added that order should also be brought to election monitoring. “Things that are happening at the ODIHR are ridiculous and cannot cause anything but irony as a reaction to them,” the diplomat said referring to the recent row between the OSCE and Moscow in the heat of the Duma election. “We need to seek a stronger control of the countries over all the organization’s activities. There is no other area where the reform would be more important.”
Moscow raises the issue of its fees to the OSCE’s budget every time its relations with the organization get a new turn of the downward spiral. The parties have been in some sort of a frozen conflict for a couple of years, and the argument almost always rests on the difference in positions on events in former Soviet republics that Russia traditionally considers a sphere of its interests. The last bitter rift occurred in 2004 during the presidential election in Ukraine. Following the run-off where Viktor Yanukovich was beating Viktor Yushchenko, according to official statistics, OSCE observers announced that the poll had been rigged. In contrast, CIS observers were saying that everything was fine. It was the OSCE’s staunch position that opened the way to the Orange Revolution and following events that sent West-leaning Viktor Yushchenko to power.
Tensions have not eased since then. Russian foreign policy chief Sergey Lavrov said at the last session of OSCE member countries’ foreign ministers on November 29that the relations had hit the point of no return. “It’s either we agree on common rules of monitoring or difficulties here will jeopardize the outlook of the ODIHR as part of the organization.”
Moscow has been gradually cutting its fees to the OSCE’s coffers over the past years. Moscow sent to the organization’s budget ˆ7.2 million in 2005, according to the Russian office at the OSCE in Vienna. The sum shrank to ˆ6.8 million a year late to fall to ˆ5.9 million this year. It is unclear how far the fees are going to be cut this time. The Russian Foreign Ministry told Kommersant the sum could be halved.
Alexander Grushko’s Wednesday statement continues Moscow’s attempts to make the OSCE easier to deal with particularly with an eye to the March presidential poll that Russia promised to invite ODIHR observers to. But terms for the mission will be laid out by Moscow, Mr. Grushko underscored.
Kommersant sources at the OSCE headquarters in Vienna do not think that a drop in the Russian financing for the budget is so serious. “The idea is no new,” the source in Vienna said. “It has been voiced many times. Russia is dropping hints that it pays a lot and gets very little in return. Clearly, each party acts to suit its own ends but not the welfare of humankind. And this is the way Moscow is trying to punish the OSCE by money.”
Vladimir Solovyev
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 27, 2007
|
|
|
