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VIENNA, Feb. 15 (AP) — Ukraine has notified the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe that it will not attend the next meeting if a sanctioned Russian lawmaker is allowed to attend.
The meeting is scheduled for February 23-24 in Vienna on the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In a letter obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday, Mykyta Poturaiev, head of Ukraine’s delegation to the OSCE parliamentary meeting, wrote: “We cannot participate in the winter session if Russia participates.”
The letter, dated Feb. 10 and addressed to Parliament President Margarita Seidfeldt, noted that Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine had broad support among Russian politicians, including Russia’s mission to the OSCE a member of.
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“We have no doubt that the Russian delegation will use the OSCE … to justify its aggression against our country and to justify the numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against the Ukrainian people,” Poturaiev wrote.
He suggested postponing the meeting “to preserve the integrity” of the General Assembly, an independent body made up of 323 lawmakers from the OSCE’s 57 member states.
The Vienna-based OSCE was created during the Cold War as a platform for dialogue between East and West.
The organization has a broad mandate that includes peace, human rights, arms control and other security issues.
Its job was complicated by the invasion of Ukraine, where many Western countries joined in protests against Russia’s involvement.
Despite EU sanctions and protests from 20 countries, including Britain, France and Canada, the Austrian government granted visas to Russian representatives attending the OSCE parliamentary meeting.
The Austrians said that, as the host country, they were obliged to issue visas to representatives of all OSCE member states.
Cederfelt decided to go ahead with next week’s session as planned after meeting Tuesday with members of parliament and Ukrainian parliament speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk, as parliament’s rules dictate that the group’s winter session needs to be held in the first two months of the year.
Nat Parry, spokesman for the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, said it was “too late” to postpone the meeting.
Lithuania is the only country so far to publicly announce that it will boycott the meeting.
Other countries are still weighing their options.
Latvia will make a decision on Thursday, Katrina Kaktina, Latvia’s ambassador to the OSCE, told The Associated Press. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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