Warsaw confirmed yesterday that Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov would not be allowed at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) meeting of foreign ministers in Lodz in December. (Russia has been a member of the OSCE since 1975.) The ostensible reason is that the EU has sanctioned Lavrov. Poland has followed the lead of British authorities, who, ahead of the OSCE’s July meeting in Birmingham, rejected visas for members of Russia’s delegation. Britain, of course, has retained the sanctions, although it’s no longer an EU member.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry statement today said that, by this “unprecedented and provocative” move, Warsaw, which currently chairs the OSCE, has “not only discredited itself, but also caused irreparable damage to the authority of the entire Organization.”
