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The visit of the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, to the OSCE summit that will be held tomorrow in Skopje has caused a lot of controversy.
Lavrov's participation, the first in an international meeting in Europe since the start of the war in Ukraine, has actually prompted Kiev and the three Baltic states to announce that their foreign ministers will boycott the meeting.
"The Ukrainian delegation will not participate in the OSCE ministerial summit," said Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Kiev, who accused Russia of wanting to "use the occasion for propaganda purposes and undermine the unity of the West." .
Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia were on the same line, stating that Russia has an "obstructive stance" within the OSCE "trying to block its activities and prevent any monitoring activities in Ukraine. According to the Estonian Foreign Minister , Margus Tsahkna, Lavrov's presence "risks legitimizing the Russian aggressor as a legitimate member of our community of free nations by trivializing the atrocious crimes Russia is committing in Ukraine." Tsahkna also urged other OSCE member states "not to accept Moscow's blackmail", also recalling that three Ukrainian representatives of the OSCE have been held in Russian prisons for over 500 days.
Lavrov's participation in the summit in North Macedonia is actually the result of a very clever maneuver by Russian diplomacy, which used the rule of consensus in force in the OSCE to paralyze its internal functioning. Moscow first vetoed Estonia's bid for the presidency in 2024, then agreed to Malta's but refused to vote on it at ambassadorial level, insisting that ministers should decide. This made Lavrov's presence inevitable.
Unlike Poland, which vetoed the participation of Moscow's representative last year when it held the presidency, the authorities in Skopje gave their approval. But to reach the North Macedonian capital, Lavrov also had to get Bulgaria's permission to fly over its airspace, making an exception to the European ban.
The American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, will also participate in the Skopje summit, but he will not meet with the Russian minister. According to a spokesperson for the State Department, Blinken wants to express solidarity with his guests from North Macedonia and the members of the OSCE.
For its part, Moscow has started with propaganda. "Everyone asks me, everyone loves me," said Sergei Lavrov, who will arrive in Skopje this evening.
"I can confirm that we have many requests for bilateral meetings", says his spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova. / Pamphlet
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