MOSCOW 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday that the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE) is "on the edge of the abyss." 

Speaking at an OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in North Macedonia's capital Skopje, Lavrov pointed out that the organization was created as a platform for the broadest “European cooperation," a "central element of equal and indivisible security" in Europe and the Euro-Atlantic.

"Russia, for its part, has made every effort to achieve these noble goals. Unfortunately, Western political elites... made a short-sighted choice, not in favor of the OSCE, but in favor of NATO," he emphasized.

The West brought anti-Russian forces to power in Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine and then incited them against Russia, he claimed, adding that Moldova is the next victim of the West's hybrid warfare and is becoming another stronghold of anti-Russian confrontation.

The minister went on to criticize the OSCE human rights bodies, saying they have become tools for maintaining Western dominance, seeing violations in the area only to the east of Austria.

"OSCE observers go to the elections (in East Europe) with conclusions prepared in advance. At the same time, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) turns a blind eye to numerous human rights violations in the West," he stressed.

The OSCE representative on freedom of the media is silent when non-Western media are being repressed, he said.

For many years, the OSCE members have been unable to agree on the agenda of a format addressing human rights, the Review Meeting on the Human Dimension, because Ukraine and the Baltic states oppose including the issue of combating neo-Nazi ideology, he said.

"And this is even though in Europe, Ukraine, and the Baltic States are places where we fix a surge in Nazi ideology, other forms of racial and religious intolerance," he said.

Encouraged by the West, Ukraine and the Baltic states restrict Russians from communicating, reading, and studying in their native language, as well as accessing Russian-language media and culture, he emphasized.

According to him, authorities in Kyiv have also launched a campaign against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, seizing churches, persecuting believers, and employing physical violence against clergy.

"Traditionally, it is customary to end speeches at our meetings on an optimistic, positive note. However, there are no special reasons for optimism now. The OSCE is being turned into an appendage of NATO and the EU. The organization, let's face it, is on the edge of the abyss," he said.

Lavrov questioned the OSCE’s ability to resume its role as a platform for addressing problems of regional security based on the principles of equality of all countries, noting that Russia, in the meanwhile, shifting its focus on the processes of Eurasian integration, which are developing in constructive formats based on an honest balance of interests.