Igor Borisov from the RF Central Election Commission
Photo: Àíäðåé Ìàõîíèí
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Russia to Withdraw Money from OSCE
After the abortive attempts to reorganize the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), Moscow proceeded to direct threats. It was the RF Central Election Commission that was the first to attack, warning to stop paying annual contribution to ODIHR budget.
“If OSCE doesn’t make further steps en route to democracy, we are considering the scenario, whereby Russia will refuse to pay annual contribution to the ODIHR budget,” Igor Borisov from the RF Central Election Commission announced at the yesterday’s press conference in Moscow. According to Borisov, Russia has curtailed the ODIHR funding by nearly two fold in the last five years and the current amount is roughly $6 million a year.
The timing of the heated rhetoric isn’t accidental. OSCE endorses next year’s budget in the fall and the RF Foreign Ministry is likely to join the attack by that time. Russia is displeased with the OSCE, people in the ministry said.
Indeed, Moscow continuously suggests optimizing the costs exactly by reducing financial backing of ODIHR that monitors elections and with which Russia had clashed at the recent elections. But Moscow is always opposed by the United States and the EU in this undertaking. Judging by the current sentiment of the RF Foreign Ministry, the battle around the OSCE budget will be tough this year.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of July 25, 2008
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