OSCE site in Tbilisi turned into a Russian-Ukrainian confrontation arena

In the course of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly session held in the Georgian capital, the Russian and Ukrainian MPs had a hot argument about several documents at once. Firstly the Ukrainian delegation strongly protested against the draft document on the abolition of the sanctions against 20 deputies of the State Duma and the Federation Council, restricting their rights to travel to the EU countries.

The draft resolution was introduced by the delegation of Switzerland, in particular, by the deputy Filippo Lombardi. The Swiss substantiated the initiative by the fact that without visits and meetings there is no dialogue, without a dialogue it is impossible to find solutions to the complex problems, including the Russian-Ukrainian relations, the Donbas and Crimea.

This argument created the preconditions for a discussion during the plenary session. The Interparliamentary Assembly is a place for discussion, even in the circumstances,  where one of the  parties considers raising the issue inadmissible. Another thing, what kind of a decision will be taken by the hundreds of delegates from 54 countries, participating in the session.

After the attempts of the Ukrainian delegation to block discussion of the resolution on ‘freedom of movement’ of the deputies, their Russian counterparts expressed a strong protest against the draft resolution on Crimea, which states that the human rights are constantly violated on the peninsula, including the rights of the Crimean Tatars.

When it became clear that despite all the objections, the draft resolution would be discussed on the plenary session of the meeting, the Russian delegation left the conference room. According to the head of the Russian delegation, the State Duma’s deputy Nikolai Kovalyov, the document is ‘absolutely biased’ and ‘anti-Russian’ in its nature. Kovalev said that the draft resolution reports on the human rights’ violations, but does not provide a single fact. ‘’There are certain propaganda slogans. We do not agree with such an approach’’, the deputy said.

The draft resolution states that the observers are not allowed to Crimea, though Russia itself has repeatedly invited them to visit the peninsula.

In addition, the Parliamentary Assembly expressed its ‘deep concern’ about the ‘increasing militarization’ in Crimea and Sevastopol.