OSCE meeting in North Macedonia fails to stand up to Lavrov, deepening problems

Russia has demonstrated that it is prepared to destroy the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), regardless of whether other states accede to its demands. Western OSCE foreign ministers found themselves at the same event in Europe as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for the first time since February 2022. Russia has been consistently kicked out of all international organisations whose principles it has trampled underfoot.

Lavrov is considered one of the key figures responsible for Russia's military aggression and for justifying international crimes. The doors to events in European capitals were either closed to him or he refused to participate. When Lavrov joined, online, the UN meeting in Geneva in the first days after the invasion, almost everyone present rose as one and left the room.

He was not welcomed by the OSCE either. In December 2022, while Poland held the Chair, Lavrov and his team were denied visas. The boycott of Russia was broken this week.

North Macedonia, which currently chairs the OSCE, wanted to move beyond the crisis and avoid the potential collapse of the organisation, which would be possible in the event that Russia were once again banned. Therefore, the country agreed to host the Russian Foreign Minister and fulfiled all his ultimatums.

The Ministerial meeting of the OSCE, held this week in North Macedonia, was thus a failure even before it ended. The boycott of the meeting, initiated by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, was supported by the foreign ministers of many key states, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Josep Borrell, the European Union's top diplomat.

Yet Lavrov continued to set conditions, which even required a change in the route taken by his plane. To top it off, the Russian minister announced that despite these actions, he does not see a real prospect of preserving the organisation. "I want to defend the Macedonians, who have supported Ukraine all year long." Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba began with these words his response to EuroPravda's question about the OSCE ministerial meeting.

And the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as a symbolic step, released a video thanking the Macedonians before that. Moreover, it did so shortly after Skopje announced that it would comply with all the demands of the Russian Foreign Ministry and open the doors for the meeting and an air corridor for the Russian government plane, suspending the international sanctions. Kyiv with this 'Thanksgiving' went to somehow deal with public outrage over the actions of the OSCE chair.

It was the Macedonian authorities responsible for breaking Lavrov's boycott.

But Moscow is a master of blackmail. It skillfully played on the indecisiveness of many Western diplomats and their favouritism towards old, even almost non-functioning "dialogue platforms," such as OSCE. First, Lavrov showed strength, blocking the decision on the next presiding state, which was supposed to be Estonia, and did not agree to any acceptable alternative for others.

The organisation without a presiding state will function against its own rules. Only at the end of the year did Moscow "reluctantly" agree to vote for Malta if Skopje made concessions regarding the admission not only of Lavrov but also of anyone on the lists of the Russian Foreign Ministry. To strengthen the ultimatum, Russia warned that in the event of a negative response, it would block not only the next presidency but also the OSCE financing, as well as the appointment of top officials.

Either you compromise your principles and lift the diplomatic blockade from Lavrov, or Russia destroys OSCE. There was another way out. Ukraine explained to its partners that Lavrov would continue to undermine OSCE regardless of the actions of other states.

Sergei Lavrov, through all his actions in Skopje, demonstrated that he was not bound by the rules. For example, he spoke for almost 15 despite three allowed. The Macedonian chairperson humbly ignored this, not making any remarks to the Russian minister.

While EU representatives, who also exceeded the limit, were criticised by the Macedonian for it. After a long and very boring report on the "Kyiv regime," which focused on new Russian twists like "EU eagerly accepts Nazis," Lavrov moved on to the main point. He refuted the expectations that actions would appease the Russian diplomat and announced that he no longer saw any point in preserving the OSCE.

"The OSCE is essentially being turned into an appendage of NATO and the EU. Let's face it, the organisation is on the brink of collapse. A simple question arises: does it make sense to invest effort into revitalising it" he asked.

He added to Russian journalists that he practically sees no chance of preserving OSCE from collapse. It became evident that even if Russia eventually votes for all the necessary decisions, it will only be temporary relief. It will start blackmailing again before any subsequent decision.

Moreover, it is easy since OSCE makes decisions by consensus (or consensus minus 1). Thus, Russia and its ally Belarus can block anything. Therefore, Ukraine offered colleagues from European countries another option, according to Dmytro Kuleba.

As he believes the only way to save OSCE is to kick out Russia from the organisation. Either by excluding Russia or by rebooting OSCE without it. Anything is possible if there is a desire.

Russia will eventually force other states to do it anyway. However, first, it will disgrace other members, like North Macedonia. Lavrov's support was very low.

For example, the mouthpiece of Kremlin ideas, Hungarian Minister Peter Szijjarto, who called for stopping arms supplies to Ukraine, traditionally worked on Russia's behalf. He also met with Lavrov again, demonstrating that he is not in the diplomatic boycott. Or the traditional "peacemaker," Austrian Foreign Minister Schallenberg, who also had a meeting with the Russian minister "at the request of OSCE" and called for "not being afraid of dialogue."

Greece's actions in support of Russia came out of the blue. After even Bulgaria refused to let the Russian plane pass through its airspace until all sanctioned individuals were removed from the passenger lists, except Lavrov himself, Greece agreed to provide an air corridor without any demands.

However, most other countries unequivocally supported Kyiv in Skopje. Lavrov faced a real avalanche of protests and demarches, and Western ministers made their decisions at the last moment.

The process was initiated by Minister Kuleba. Just a day before the ministerial meeting, when it became clear that Lavrov's visit would indeed happen, the Ukrainian Foreign minister announced that his trip to Skopje was cancelled. The Baltic States immediately supported Ukraine.

The NATO foreign ministers were in Brussels at the Ukraine-NATO Council meeting on that day. Several of the ministers announced that they were ready to support Ukraine but would not publicly declare it to "not spoil the karma" for the Macedonians. The scale of this support became evident only in Skopje.

As EuroPravda found out, 13 out of 31 NATO member states refused to travel to Skopje and did not board the charter transporting ministers from one meeting to another. Those who arrived decided not to attend the main session after a joint dinner, where Lavrov was absent, so as not to find themselves at the same table with him. They let their deputies, assistants, or even ambassadors speak on their behalf (Lithuania left the chair empty).

For example, this was done by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and EU High Representative Josep Borrell. On Wednesday evening, Borrell said he wanted to speak himself, and came to Skopje, but then realised that such legitimation of Lavrov was unacceptable and did not attend the session. The foreign ministries of the UK, Canada, Italy, Poland, Belgium, and others also did not attend the event.

When Lavrov was speaking, Ukraine and representatives of several other countries deliberately left the room, making Lavrov nervous. The Russian minister did not hold back and, breaking away from reading papers, said, "Leave me alone!" It's hard to understand exactly what he meant by that, but he didn't resemble someone who had achieved a diplomatic victory for sure. After the statements of the Russian minister, there is no clarity even on whether he will fulfil his promise and whether the decisions that would save OSCE from collapse will be approved right now.

By Sergiy Sydorenko

Editor, European Pravda

From North Macedonia

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