Russia prepares to suspend participation in OSCE Parliamentary Assembly

Russia is going to suspend its participation in the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA), Valentina Matvienko, Speaker of the Federation Council [upper house of the Russian parliament], has said.

As reported by Kremlin-aligned Russian news agency Interfax, during a Federation Council meeting, Matvienko stated that the upper house of Russia's sham parliament, along with the State Duma (the lower house), would draft a decision to suspend participation in the OSCE PA and halt payments from the Russian Federation to the organisation.

"Colleagues, I would support the idea of giving such an instruction to the [Federation Council] committee to work with colleagues from the State Duma and prepare such a decision to suspend our participation and, accordingly, to suspend payments to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly from the Russian Federation," Matvienko said.

Her statement was preceded by a speech by Vladimir Dzhabarov, the First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council's Committee on International Affairs, who voiced this position, saying that it had been agreed upon with the State Duma.

Dzhabarov stated that, in Russia's view, all the "principles on which the OSCE PA was based had been destroyed". In addition, he claimed that there had been a "total Ukrainisation" of the Assembly's agenda.

The Romanian authorities have recently refused to issue visas to Russian and Belarusian delegations to attend the annual session of the OSCE PA, which will take place in Romania from 29 June to 3 July.

The Russian delegation has previously refused to attend at least two sessions of the OSCE PA – in autumn 2023 in Yerevan and in winter 2024 in Vienna. Russian parliamentarians also did not appear at the sessions in the UK and Canada in 2022 and 2023, respectively, due to a lack of visas.

In July 2023, the OSCE PA adopted a declaration recognising Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Earlier this year, Russia announced its suspension from the OSCE PA.

The Parliamentary Assembly brings together 57 member states of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.