Russian foreign minister skips OSCE ministerial meeting in Vienna

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has not taken part in this year's ministerial meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, held under Finland's chairmanship in Vienna.

Source: European Pravda

Details: Until recently, Lavrov had been making strenuous efforts to break out of international isolation, including in order to attend the OSCE meeting.

A "multi-stage special operation" to secure an invitation to the OSCE gathering had gone on for more than a year. The early decision to move the meeting from the capital of this year's chair, Finland – which would otherwise have had to issue Lavrov with a visa – to more "accommodating" Austria was likely linked to this, although Helsinki explained the move on organisational grounds.

Despite these efforts, a few days before the meeting Moscow announced that Lavrov would not fly to Vienna and would instead send his deputy.

Lavrov also published a lengthy article in Rossiyskaya Gazeta claiming that the OSCE in its current form no longer interests Russia, that the organisation has allegedly degenerated and turned into an instrument of the West, and suggesting the "collapse of the OSCE".

European Pravda has learned that Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko is attending the meeting in Lavrov's place.

Background: In 2022, when Poland held the chair, it refused to issue visas to Lavrov and the Russian delegation, preventing them from attending the meeting. For subsequent OSCE gatherings in 2023 in North Macedonia and in 2024 in Malta, however, the Russian foreign minister has received permission to enter.

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