The OSCE has played a seditious role in the parliamentary election run-up in Byelorussia and during and after the ballot, says Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
"Regretfully, we witnessed a situation when the OSCE monitoring mission began, long before the election, to speak about their illegitimacy, and then made a biased comment on the ballot itself, thus playing a seditious role", said S. Lavrov. Besides, the very mechanism of manning the mission to monitor the Byelorussian election was not transparent, noted the Russian minister.
"Russian observers were not included in the long-term mission, though there was a quota approved for that purpose", said S. Lavrov, explaining the situation. He added that "again it was decided that English would be the working language of the mission, while the Russian language could not be used in the monitors' activities".
The Russian Foreign minister has again stressed the necessity of drastically reforming the OSCE. Moscow hopes that the decision of the Council of OSCE Foreign Ministers on the issue of reforms approved last December would be put into effect. It envisions reforming the activities of the bureau for democratic institutions and human rights.
"Only by doing that can we assure objectivity of work, which often addresses political problems imposed on Europe. Otherwise we shall always be dealing with effects, and not with really pressing problems", said S. Lavrov.
"Regretfully, we witnessed a situation when the OSCE monitoring mission began, long before the election, to speak about their illegitimacy, and then made a biased comment on the ballot itself, thus playing a seditious role", said S. Lavrov. Besides, the very mechanism of manning the mission to monitor the Byelorussian election was not transparent, noted the Russian minister.
"Russian observers were not included in the long-term mission, though there was a quota approved for that purpose", said S. Lavrov, explaining the situation. He added that "again it was decided that English would be the working language of the mission, while the Russian language could not be used in the monitors' activities".
The Russian Foreign minister has again stressed the necessity of drastically reforming the OSCE. Moscow hopes that the decision of the Council of OSCE Foreign Ministers on the issue of reforms approved last December would be put into effect. It envisions reforming the activities of the bureau for democratic institutions and human rights.
"Only by doing that can we assure objectivity of work, which often addresses political problems imposed on Europe. Otherwise we shall always be dealing with effects, and not with really pressing problems", said S. Lavrov.
