#14 - RW 12-10-04 - RW Home
RFE/RL Russian Political Weekly
Vol. 4, No. 47, 9 December 2004
RUSSIA RENEWS ITS CRITICISM OF OSCE
By Liz Fuller
Copyright (c) 2004. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org

On the sidelines of the CIS summit held in Moscow in early July, the presidents of Russia and seven other CIS states (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) adopted, at Russia's instigation, a statement criticizing the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and calling for a fundamental reappraisal of its priorities. Since then, senior Russian officials have reiterated those criticisms on several occasions, calling for the OSCE Foreign Ministers meeting scheduled to take place in Sofia on 6-7 December to address the issue of sweeping reforms that would enhance the OSCE's role in security and antiterrorism activities while reducing drastically its frequently critical focus on domestic political developments in the former Soviet republics (see End Note, "RFE/RL Newsline," 12 July 2004).

Among the criticisms listed in the July document were the OSCE's imputed failure to respect "such fundamental...principles as non-interference in internal affairs and respect for sovereignty." The six heads of state further charged that the OSCE is guilty of double standards in light of its "selective attention on certain states while ignoring problems in other states." They claimed that the OSCE's humanitarian activities are restricted to "monitoring the human rights situation in the countries of the CIS and former Yugoslavia," and that this almost exclusive focus on the human rights dimension "significantly restricts" its ability to counter new challenges and threats.

The statement further targeted the OSCE's Warsaw-based Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), noting that its primary activity of election monitoring is frequently "politicized and fails to take into account the specifics of individual countries." Over the past decade, ODIHR monitoring missions have criticized as failing to meet European standards most of the ballots, both parliamentary and presidential, in all the nine states that signed the condemnation.

The joint statement also criticized as "ineffective" the OSCE's field missions in the CIS, noting that their financing consumes a significant chunk of the OSCE's budget. It claimed that instead of fulfilling their mandate "to provide assistance to the government of the host state," those missions concentrate "exclusively" on the human rights situation and engage in "unwarranted" criticism of the domestic political situation.

It concluded that "the OSCE's agenda should include the swiftest removal of the imbalance between the three dimensions of the organization's activity by increasing the role of its military-political, economic, and environmental elements" and called for drafting "new approaches" to the organization's work.

The same six CIS presidents followed up on their initial broadside in September with a second letter arguing that the OSCE should increase its focus on combating international terrorism.

Some subsequent Russian statements have repeated the criticisms expressed in the two initial documents. For example, in October the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling on the OSCE to draft new, "politically unbiased" criteria for monitoring elections. (The OSCE had evaluated both the 7 December 2003 elections to the State Duma and the Russian presidential ballot in March 2004 as failing "to meet a number of OSCE commitments for democratic elections.") At a meeting in Moscow last month with visiting members of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the Federation Council's International Affairs Committee, accused the OSCE of trying to pressure national leaderships by predicting in advance of national elections -- including the 31 October presidential ballot in Ukraine -- how democratic and legitimate the ballot would prove to be. Russian Ambassador to the OSCE Aleksei Borodavkin has similarly claimed that the choice of OSCE observers to assess the September parliamentary ballot in Belarus was "selective and biased," the "Financial Times" reported on 11 November. Borodavkin said the OSCE should focus on promoting "political dialogue" and on the most important European security issues.

Other Russian officials came out with more specific proposals aimed to deflecting OSCE activities that irk Russia. The "Financial Times" quoted an unnamed Russian diplomat as arguing that the OSCE observer mission on the border between the Russian Federation and Georgia, the task of which is to monitor possible illicit border crossings by Chechen militants, is too expensive and no longer necessary. Those observers were deployed in 2000 at Georgia's request in the wake of repeated Russian allegations that Tbilisi was making its territory available to the Chechen resistance.

Addressing the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in Sofia on 6 December, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed that the OSCE "has failed to make progress in fundamental issues of ensuring truly pan-European security, specifically, ratifying the amended Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe [CFE]," RIA reported on 7 December. Lavrov noted that Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan have all ratified the amended CFE Treaty, and he called on the other signatory states to follow suit. (Speaking in Moscow in February 2004, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said that in its present form, the CFE Treaty "cannot uphold stability and the balance of interests of the signatory states.") Some NATO members, including the United States, have pegged ratification of the CFE Treaty to Moscow's compliance with its 1999 pledge to close its military bases in Georgia and Transdniester.

Lavrov further argued that holding a special OSCE high-level seminar early in 2005 to discuss military doctrine and defense policy as Russia has proposed would contribute to strengthening stability and security in Euro-Atlantic region. Lavrov also echoed earlier calls for the OSCE to increase its collective potential for countering terrorism. And he called on the organization to abandon what he termed its "fruitless political maneuvers" aimed at revising the current format for seeking to resolve the Transdniestrian conflict. At present, Russia, Ukraine, and the OSCE serve jointly as mediators between Moldova and Transdniester; in June, Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin proposed an alternative format that would include EU and U.S. representatives in the negotiating process.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell took issue with Lavrov on 7 December. Powell said he "categorically disagrees" with Russian allegations that the OSCE is guilty of double standards. He stressed that "all participating states signed up to the proposition that fundamental freedoms, democracy, and the rule of law are of legitimate concern to us all." Powell also defended the OSCE field missions, which, he said, "are among its most important assets." And he specifically noted the positive role of the observers deployed on the Russian-Georgian border and called for additional funding to extend their deployment for a further year.

Lavrov, however, remained obdurate, warning on 7 December that Moscow might withhold its contribution to the OSCE budget if the organization fails to revise its operation procedures. Lavrov further blocked passage of the council session's final document. (Liz Fuller)