Moscow Reacts To Blinken's Accusations Of Russia Blocking OSCE HDIM

Russia noted a statement by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in which he blamed Russia for obstructing the annual OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM), Deputy Director of the Information and Press Department Alexey Zaytsev said on Friday, at the briefing.

Moscow consider his statement as yet another attempt to distort reality. since the beginning of this year, when the participants began consultations on coordinating the agenda and modalities of the Warsaw meeting, Russia has clearly outlined its priorities and consistently pursued them during the talks.

Russia insisted on including an item on the need to counter neo-Nazism and the glorification of Nazism on the agenda because of the aggravation of these problems in the OSCE space. in addition, we wanted the meeting in Warsaw to be organised in line with established practice. the equal and non-discriminatory access of all participants, including NGOs, is an indispensable condition for this.

The refusal of Sweden, as the current OSCE Chair, and Western partners to consider Russia’s proposals is perplexing, particularly when they ignore the increase in neo-Nazi activity and the glorification of Nazis and their accomplices. we believe that without a discussion on this important subject the meeting would block monitoring of the deteriorating human rights situation, something Mr Blinken accuses Russia of. 'We would like to emphasise that Russia has done all it can to resolve any problems with regard to holding the Warsaw meeting. In this context, we believe that attempts to cast our position as obstructive are dishonest and harmful to the spirit of partnership and cooperation in the OSCE," Zaytsev stressed.