Lavrov in the Lion's Den--OSCE Skopje
The Saga of the Russian delegation’s flight just to reach Skopje, Macedonia shows the nature of the hybrid war with Russia—Bulgaria wouldn’t allow the passage of Russia’s plane through its airspace because Maria Zakharova is part of the delegation and she’s been sanctioned by the EU for some idiotic reason; so, the Russians had to fly via Turkey and Greece to reach their destination. It was even questioned whether Russians would be invited at all; fortunately. the host nation insisted. OSCE—Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe was the paramount European institution until war began being waged upon it by the Outlaw US Empire and its bought stooges within the EU. In December 2021 when Russia made its security proposals, the key OSCE Treaties were all mentioned, and I wrote a report that integrated them with all the diplomatic chatter going on at the time. Readers will see them mentioned again in Lavrov’s remarks. The OSCE had a bright outlook when it was first organized, but it is close to becoming defunct as Lavrov notes and tells us why. I’m sure this is a lecture Lavrov would prefer not having to give, but in this case it becomes his duty. Did those across the table hear or did they ignore what some would consider a pest at their tea party? It’s clear from the MFA’s website that Lavrov held several meetings on the sidelines, so it’s clear some want to continue dialogue with Russia. You’ll also read Lavrov reiterate the facts of the matter—facts that NATO propaganda has turned upside-down and inside-out while basing its policy on the lies its produced. Will Lavrov’s efforts result in any change, meaning a reversal of the OSCE’s demise? Or will it die before the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act, which is in English here? As I wrote on several occasions in December 2021 and in January 2022 at my VK site, all NATO OSCE members broke all the OSCE Security Treaties yet didn’t have the courage to admit to having done so, which was clearly a reason why no response was made to Russia’s proposals. I prefer to interpret Lavrov’s remarks as expert witness testimony to a series of crimes. Here’re his words:
Mr. Chairman-in-Office,
Madam Secretary-General,
Colleagues
In just over a year, it will be the fiftieth anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act. In this regard, I regret to note that the OSCE is approaching this anniversary date in a deplorable state, and its prospects remain unclear.
After the end of the Cold War and the ideological confrontation associated with it, there was a historic chance for the OSCE's unifying potential to be used to the maximum and for the organization to become a platform for the broadest pan-European cooperation, a central element in the formation of an inclusive architecture of equal and indivisible security in all three dimensions in Europe and the Euro-Atlantic region.
As part of the military-political basket, the participating states adopted a number of fundamental documents aimed at creating a Europe without dividing lines, in the broadest sense of the term, and also providing for the inadmissibility of strengthening one's own security at the expense of the security of others. These include the Charter of Paris for a New Europe (1990), the Charter for European Security (1999), and the Astana Declaration (2010).
Russia, for its part, has made every effort to achieve these noble goals. This is what our many initiatives have been aimed at, including the conclusion of the European Security Treaty and the creation of a common security space based on cooperation.
Unfortunately, the Western political elites, who have arrogated to themselves the right to decide the fate of mankind, have made a short-sighted choice not in favor of the OSCE, but in favor of NATO. In favor of the philosophy of deterrence, zero-sum geopolitical games, and master-slave logic. One of the key components of this policy was the reckless expansion of the bloc to the East, which began after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. Although, as it seemed, the end of the bipolar confrontation deprived the North Atlantic Alliance of its raison d'être.
The NATO and EU states have destroyed the military-political dimension of the OSCE with their own hands. In 1999, NATO committed an act of undisguised and brutal aggression against Yugoslavia, a member of the OSCE and the UN. In 2008, in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and the principle of the inviolability of borders in Europe enshrined in the Helsinki Final Act, Kosovo was seized from Serbia without any referendum.
At the Bucharest summit of the alliance in 2008, the NATO states that are members of the OSCE "beckoned" Tbilisi and Kiev with membership. The goal was simple and unpretentious – to set them against Russia. Mikheil Saakashvili, who came to power as a result of the Western-backed Rose Revolution, worked out his carte blanche in Bucharest in August 2008, ordering the bombing of South Ossetian cities and the attack on the positions of peacekeepers who were stationed there with the consent of the OSCE. This provocation was prepared by the United States, which launched its "Train and Arm" program in Georgia. What Washington "taught", Mikheil Saakashvili obediently did.
It took much more than that to create an anti-Russian bridgehead in Ukraine – the bloody coup d'état of 2014 and eight years of punitive operation against the population of Donbass with the encouragement of the West and in violation of the Minsk Package of Measures approved by the UN Security Council. I would like to remind you once again of the cynical confessions made by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French and Ukrainian presidents Francois Hollande and Petr Poroshenko that they needed the Minsk Agreements not for the sake of peace in Ukraine, but only to give the Kiev regime time to build up its military potential against Russia.
Among the thwarted attempts to resolve the acute problems of our continent on the basis of OSCE principles is the Dmitry Kozak Memorandum, which could have reliably settled the situation in Moldova 20 years ago. At that time, NATO and EU Brussels unceremoniously torpedoed the document already initialed by Chisinau and Tiraspol. Now the "5+2" format is being killed – the last thing that remains of joint efforts for the Transnistrian settlement.
In fact, Moldova is destined to be the next victim in the hybrid war unleashed by the West against Russia. Every country where Western emissaries, foundations and so-called NGOs are now active should think about it.
NATO members, at the instigation of the United States, blocked the entry into force of the Agreement on Adaptation of the CFE Treaty and ignored Russia's specific proposals to restore the viability of the conventional arms control regime in Europe. By their actions, the Americans have "buried" the Open Skies Treaty and devalued a number of other fundamental documents aimed at strengthening mutual trust in the field of security.
The true intentions of Western politicians were once again revealed when Washington and Brussels rejected proposals put forward by Russia in December 2021 on legally binding security guarantees in Europe. They didn't even want to talk to us. None of them even responded to my message to the foreign ministers of the United States and NATO member states of January 28, 2022, asking them to answer the question "How do you interpret the commitments made at the OSCE summits not to strengthen your own security at the expense of the security of others?" Instead, we were sent blank "papers" from the EU External Action Service and the NATO Secretary General, to whom the message was not even addressed. The essence of the West's position: it doesn't matter what the presidents and prime ministers in the OSCE signed them, only NATO can provide legal security guarantees. This is the attitude of a group of countries led by an "exceptional" power to our organization, which they clearly no longer respect.
The situation in the OSCE's "second basket" is no less sad. In an effort to bring down the Russian economy, the United States and its European satellites have imposed thousands of sanctions against Russia, thereby putting an end to the broad practical cooperation between East and West in our once common region. The Kiev regime is Washington's investment in its selfish interests of containing Russia and solving its own problems at the expense of others, including the elimination of economic competitors, primarily the European Union. In spite of everything, the EU continues to meekly play the unenviable role assigned to it, bearing the brunt of the consequences of the U.S. adventure in Ukraine and humbly rejecting the forms of economic partnership that have ensured the prosperity of the European Union for decades. The impression is that the EU has abandoned the original goals of its founders to improve the well-being of the citizens of its member states and has turned – largely through the efforts of the Brussels bureaucracy – into an aggressive geopolitical project.
Speaking about the fate of the OSCE, it is impossible not to dwell on the human dimension. This "basket" was filled with a large set of obligations addressed (I would like to emphasise this in particular) to all participating countries.
However, the problem of equality and objectivity arises here as well. Without any rules or procedures, ODIHR has focused its work exclusively on countries "east of Vienna". OSCE observers go to the elections with pre-prepared conclusions. At the same time, ODIHR turns a blind eye to numerous human rights violations in the West. The Moscow Mechanism, with its engaged experts, is also diligently working out the political order. The Representative on Freedom of the Media remains silent when non-Western media are repressed.
For several years now, we have not been able to agree on the agenda of the Human Dimension Review Meeting, in part because some delegations stubbornly prevent the inclusion of the issue of neo-Nazism in it. And this is despite the fact that in Europe, primarily in Ukraine and the Baltic states, there is a surge in Nazi ideology and practice, as well as other forms of racial and religious intolerance. They praise Hitler's collaborators, demolish monuments to soldiers-liberators, and enshrine these criminal actions in law.
The neo-Nazi regime ruling in Kiev "surpassed" even the Baltic states in its actions to legislate the eradication of everything Russian. The very existence of the Russians, their decisive contribution to the history of Ukraine, is denied. People are forbidden to communicate, read and study in their native language, to have access to Russian-language media and culture. There are plenty of facts, but the OSCE and its relevant institutions are silent. They were also silent when the Kiev regime made exceptions to the openly discriminatory legislation on the "state language" only for the languages of the European Union, and not for Russian. Moreover, the "enlightened" Brussels was also silent, not speaking in any way about the need to respect the numerous conventions of the UN, UNESCO, and the Council of Europe, which guarantee equal rights to all national minorities.
A few days ago, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Roman Stefanchuk said that "there are no Russian minorities" in Ukraine, and there cannot be. Apparently, the head of the Ukrainian parliament has never read the following text: "The free development and protection of Russian and other languages of national minorities is guaranteed; The State shall promote the consolidation of the nation, the development of its historical self-consciousness, traditions and culture, and the linguistic and religious identity of all national minorities; the content of rights and freedoms may not be restricted; there may be no privileges or restrictions on the grounds of race, political, religious or other beliefs; the right to education in one's mother tongue is guaranteed." These are just a few quotes from the current Constitution of Ukraine, which has not been repealed and at which Vladimir Zelensky and Petr Poroshenko before him took the oath to the applause of the West. But everyone is silent again – the OSCE, the Venice Commission, the EU, and the United States, not noticing the desecration of the basic law of Ukraine.
Under this silence and with the encouragement of the West, the Kiev regime unleashed a disgusting campaign against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, including the seizure of churches, persecution of believers and physical reprisals against clergymen.
I would like to draw your attention to the fact that all these crimes against human rights did not begin in February 2022, but immediately after the bloody coup d'état in February 2014, when neo-Nazis seized power, tearing up the settlement agreement signed the day before under the guarantees of Germany, Poland and France, which quickly reconciled themselves to this humiliation.
Against this backdrop, the incantations of the Brussels leaders that Vladimir Zelensky is "defending European values" in all his actions are striking in their cynicism. Now they also want to open the doors to the EU for the Kiev regime in an accelerated manner. As the saying goes, we accept Nazis out of turn. Ashamed.
The question arises: why do we need flawed human rights institutions, which are turning into a tool of those who have taken a course to privatize the secretariats of international organizations for their needs? What are the interests of pan-European security and cooperation that such an OSCE serves?
The current situation is a direct consequence of the persistent attempts of our Western neighbors to ensure their dominance, shamelessly using the OSCE to aggressively push through narrow selfish interests and deliberately destroying the fundamental principle of consensus and the very culture of diplomacy. It is clear to any unbiased person that it will not be possible to solve European security issues seriously and honestly. However, Western capitals are obsessively "finishing" off the OSCE's chances for revival. They have already created a "European Political Community" without Russia and Belarus. Thus, another dividing line has been drawn on our continent, which destroys the OSCE space. The initiators of this venture should think hard about how their brainchild correlates with the noble ideals that guided the founding fathers of the Helsinki process, as well as the authors of the Charter of Paris for a New Europe.
Traditionally, it is customary to conclude speeches at our meetings on an optimistic and positive note. However, there are no particular reasons for optimism now. The OSCE, in fact, is being turned into an appendage of NATO and the EU. The organization (let's face it) is on the brink of an abyss. A simple question arises: Does it make sense to invest in its revitalization? Will it ever be able to adapt to the objective realities of global development and once again become a platform for considering regional security problems based on the principles of the Helsinki Final Act, primarily the principle of equality of all member states? So far, there are many more questions than answers.
In the meantime, life does not stand still. The processes of Eurasian integration and equal cooperation based on an honest balance of interests are developing on our continent in constructive formats, regardless of the OSCE's ever deeper immersion in the confrontational agenda imposed on it.
I’m sure Lavrov and team were subjected to some amount of verbal abuse based on NATO/EU lies, but I rather doubt any fact-based refutation of his testimony was provided. He may have been seconded by some. Media will surely report, but how accurate will its reporting be? Yes, much in the Helsinki and other OSCE treaties were copied directly from the UN Charter, the concept of Indivisible Security being paramount. Treaties are agreements on acceptable behaviors and are part of humanity’s evolution away from barbarism. If treaties are destroyed, then humanity has backslided toward the barbarism it once sought to escape. IMO, that’s the Big Picture meaning of what’s been ongoing since the late 1990s when the treaty breaking took flight. The global balance of power is now quite different today and the Global Majority is demanding the establishment of Peace in the pursuit of Harmony. The OSCE nations have a choice: They can join the Global Majority or they can continue to regress into the NATO Bloc and remain colonies of its master the Outlaw US Empire.