Russian Foreign Minister Argues OSCE Is No Longer Needed

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that he doubts it is expedient to continue the work of the OSCE.

In his speech at the OSCE Ministerial Meeting in Skopje, which was thoroughly riddled with traditional Russian propaganda clichés, Lavrov stated that "the OSCE is essentially being turned into an appendage of NATO and the EU".

"Let's face it, the organisation is on the brink of collapse. A simple question arises: does it make sense to invest effort into revitalising it?" Lavrov asked himself.

According to him, "there are now far more questions than answers".

Notably, after his speech, Lavrov left the room in a hurry and did not listen to the other participants. He was not present before the speech either.

The Ukrainian delegation walked out of the meeting when Lavrov began to speak. It was joined by several other delegations, the full list of which is not yet known.

On 28 November, Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba would not be attending the OSCE meeting due to the organisers’ decision to invite Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Subsequently, the foreign ministers of the Baltic states and Poland joined the boycott.