Statement of the chambers of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on the decision to suspend the participation of the delegation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation in the work of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE

The Senators of the Russian Federation and Deputies of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation are compelled to state that the repeated appeals to the leadership of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE PA) and its members to return to an inclusive interparliamentary dialogue aimed at addressing the challenges of development of regional co-operation in the area of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and to build a European security architecture were ignored and left without appropriate reaction. 

Despite numerous calls and proposals by the Russian delegation, the priorities of the OSCE PA leadership indicate that at present, instead of creating conditions for a constructive exchange of views and elaboration of a unifying agenda, this platform is being used as a politicized instrument for targeted implementation of an anti-Russian course, including deliberate distortion of the causal link between the events taking place in Ukraine.

Biased discriminatory approaches, double standards and total Russophobia, unwillingness for a substantive discussion, including on crucial issues of ensuring equal and indivisible security, testify to the extreme degradation of the OSCE PA as a mechanism for inter-parliamentary co-operation.

For many years, the OSCE PA has been ignoring problems related to the violation of the rights of national minorities in Ukraine and the Baltic States, freedom of communication and education in one's native language, and has paid no attention to blasphemous glorification of Nazis and their accomplices, harassment and killing of journalists who express a position different from that of Brussels and Washington.

The delegation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation to the OSCE PA has been repeatedly deprived, under spurious pretexts, of the opportunity to continue dialog and to participate fully and equally in the work of the plenary sessions and governing bodies of the OSCE PA. 

In 2022, members of the Russian delegation were denied visas to attend the annual session of the OSCE PA in Birmingham and its autumn meeting in Warsaw. In 2023, the Senators of the Russian Federation and Deputies of the State Duma were denied adequate security conditions and visas to attend the OSCE PA session in Vancouver. The non-admission of the Russian delegation to these events predetermined the adoption of the only possible decision to suspend payments to the OSCE PA budget. This suspension has been used to deprive the members of the Russian delegation of the right to vote, thus excluding representatives of our country from participationin decision-making. 

The final point in the emerging deadlock was the demonstrative refusal of Romania to issue visas to members of the Russian delegation to attend the annual session of the OSCE PA in Bucharest in 2024. This decision demonstrated that confrontational trends and the atmosphere of intolerance prevailed over common sense, spirit and values of this inter-parliamentary organization. This move by the Romanian authorities violated the principle of sovereign equality of member States and the provisions of the resolution on Unrestricted Access of Members of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Attending Official OSCE Events and Other Parliamentary Activities to the Tbilisi Declaration of the OSCE PA 2016.

The Senators of the Russian Federation and Deputies of the State Duma are convinced that the application of restrictions on participation in OSCE PA events against parliamentarians expressing the will and interests of their people is unacceptable. It has to be stated that under the current circumstances the possibilities for continuing a constructive dialogue in the OSCE PA have been completely exhausted.

In this regard, the Senators of the Russian Federation and Deputies of the State Duma consider it reasonable and legitimate to suspend the participation of the delegation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation in the OSCE PA as well as the payment of the contributions of the Russian Federation to the OSCE PA budget. During the period of suspension, any actions to amend the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly to the detriment of the Russian delegation will be deemed legally null and void. 

The Senators of the Russian Federation and Deputies of the State Duma express their readiness to return to the work in the OSCE PA on condition that its leadership and a number of member States revise their Russophobic and discriminatory approaches to addressing the pressing issues of European security, and also express their hope that sensible forces in the Assembly will show the necessary will to resolve the political and ideological crisis in the area of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in the interests of peace and stability on the continent.