“Provocative”: Russia after Poland bans its foreign minister from meeting

Moscow:

Russia called Warsaw’s refusal to allow Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to attend a meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe next month as “unprecedented and provocative” on Saturday.

“The decision by Poland, Acting Chairman of the OSCE, to refuse the participation of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the OSCE ministerial meeting in Lodz on 1 and 2 December is unprecedented and provocative,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Foreign Affairs. the meeting of ministers of the world’s largest security organization.

“Not only did Warsaw discredit itself, it also caused irreparable damage to the credibility of the organization as a whole,” the ministry said.

Poland said on Friday it would not allow Lavrov into the country for the meeting under European sanctions.

“Delegations should be adapted to current EU regulations and should not include persons sanctioned by the European Union,” Poland’s OSCE presidency said in a statement.

“With such destructive decisions, the Poles … are pushing the OSCE into the abyss,” the Russian Foreign Ministry replied.

It said the move “would deprive (the OSCE) of the last chance to show its relevance to strengthening security and establishing cooperation, for which it was created”.

The ministry accused the security body of becoming “a platform for political show and anti-Russian exercises”.

“We are convinced that all sensible politicians share the position of the Russian side regarding the impermissibility of such actions,” it said.

The Russian delegation will instead be led by Alexander Lukashevich, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the OSCE.

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