Russia is furious because its chief diplomat is being treated like a leper. But the country is to blame for this with its destructive power politics.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is currently unwanted in Europe.
The annual meeting of Europe’s most important security organization began on Thursday with one major absentee – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Moscow’s chief diplomat is under EU sanctions, which is why the host country, Poland, refused him entry. This is a resounding slap in the face for Russia and not without risk for the future of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). After Russia’s exclusion from the Council of Europe and the G-8 and the collapse of the NATO-Russia Council, the alliance of 57 states is the last forum in which East and West can talk about core security issues on the European continent.
Nevertheless, it would be wrong to blame Poland for undiplomatically disinviting Lavrov. The current bang is the logical consequence of destructive Russian behavior that has been aimed at weakening the OSCE for years. Russia has violated every basic principle to which the members of this organization were committed after the Cold War. These include compliance with democracy, respect for civil liberties and the inviolability of state borders.
A slow death threatens
It was not only the attack on Ukraine that made it clear that Russia had placed itself far outside of this European community of values. Last year, for example, Moscow refused to adequately monitor the Duma elections, even though reviewing democratic standards is part of the OSCE’s core business. The reason for this is clear – the foreign observers would have witnessed a farce. Russia is also undermining the organization by blocking its budget and threatening not to renew peacekeeping missions. The OSCE is thus in danger of suffering a slow death.
Against the background of the war of aggression against Ukraine – a fundamental violation of the idea of this security organization – Lavrov’s expulsion is an appropriate sanction. Of course, the OSCE does not need to be a fair-weather club of impeccable democracies, but rather a forum in which conflicting interests can collide. That means sitting down at the same table with political opponents.
But there would have been no constructive dialogue in the Polish city of Lodz anyway. Lavrov is a veteran who speaks even the most grotesque propaganda lie into the microphone without batting an eyelash and lets Western admonitions bounce off him. At the same time, he does not belong to the inner circle of the Kremlin regime. For example, there are indications that Putin did not let him in on his decision to go to war. So if you want to achieve something in Moscow, it’s best to talk to people close to the President. The US recently held a discreet meeting with the head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, an old ally of Putin.
Lavrov’s ministry, on the other hand, lacks the necessary credibility as an interlocutor. A scandal from the beginning of this week illustrated this once again: US and Russian diplomats wanted to sit down at a table in Cairo to negotiate arms control, but Moscow canceled the meeting at short notice. Apparently, hardliners in the Kremlin had vetoed it at the last minute.
The OSCE is in crisis, but it has not had its day
The OSCE can therefore do without a theatrical but meaningless appearance by Lavrov. You shouldn’t let the thread of conversation with the Putin regime break off, but you shouldn’t give it a big stage for its mendacious messages. Despite everything, Moscow is represented in Lodz, simply with a lower-ranking delegation. Keeping Russia in the organization is certainly the right thing to do.
In theory, it would be possible to expel a member for serious violations of its duties, as happened with Yugoslavia in 1992. However, the OSCE has not had its day as a forum that Russia tries to involve in security policy. It is true that a real dialogue, especially on the war in Ukraine, is completely impossible at the moment. But one day in the future there will be opportunities to talk to Moscow about a new security architecture for Europe. A bloody madness like that caused by Russia in Ukraine can hopefully be prevented with such a peace order in the future.