Russia puts pressure on OSCE vote monitors :: Charter'97 :: News

Russia, angered by the growing influence of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in monitoring elections and human rights on its borders, is blocking this year`s budget and withholding its own contribution to force changes on the organization, according to diplomats at OSCE headquarters in Vienna.

The issue has become so serious that a confidential European Union document presented to EU ambassadors this month suggested that member states should step in to support the €180 million, or $240 million, budget or risk a collapse of the organization.

"Russia is using the 2005 budget not because the issue is about money as such," said Daan Everts, Dutch ambassador to the organization. "Russia wants to make a point. It wants less of human rights and human security and more focus on military, economic and environmental issues."

Russia admits that it is withholding support for this year`s budget until certain conditions are met.

"We are ready to pay," said Alexey Borodavkin, Russia`s ambassador to the 55-member OSCE. "But this is not only a financial problem. It is a problem of principle.

"If the parties expect us to pay a large amount into the OSCE budget, then Russia`s interests and concerns should also be taken into consideration."

The EU document, a copy of which was obtained by the International Herald Tribune, stated that Russia`s dispute had a much wider relevance.

"What is happening today in the OSCE cannot be seen as an isolated issue," the document says.

"At the heart of the present crisis lies a more fundamental `values gap.` Russia`s main problem with the OSCE concerns those things we most value in it – its monitoring of democracy and human rights."

Dimitrij Rupel, the Slovene foreign minister and curent chairman of the OSCE, said in an interview that lack of agreement over a 2005 budget meant the organization was unable to launch any new activities or implement any important initiatives.

At issue is a dispute that is pitting Russia against the United States, Canada and European Union countries over what role and influence the organization should have in supporting human rights, the rule of law and election monitoring in countries that Russia considers within its sphere of influence.

The dispute has escalated because Russia sees the organization as acting against its interests, as reflected in conflicts over recent elections in Chechnya, Georgia, Belarus and Ukraine. On Monday, Jan Kubis, the organization`s head, was in Kyrgyzstan to try to mediate between the two opposition factions seeking power.

In the elections in Belarus in October and in Ukraine in November, the OSCE publicly questioned the fairness of the campaigns and the results. President Vladimir Putin of Russia also sent observers from Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States to monitor the elections but they declared them free, fair and legitimate.

At stake for Moscow is how the OSCE`s monitoring of elections could boost the opposition, as it did in Ukraine and Georgia, and ultimately catapult into power by popular uprisings democratically elected leaders that could challenge Russia`s influence.

The EU document admitted as much.

"The legitimacy of the verdict given by the OSCE was a powerful factor encouraging the developments that took place in Ukraine after Nov. 21," when the opposition challenged the election result, the document stated. Fresh elections were eventually held and the opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko was swept into power.

Borodavkin, Russia`s ambassador, insisted that Moscow was not against the OSCE`s playing a role in safeguarding human rights.

"Some countries in the OSCE make democracy a priority," he said. "We don`t want to argue this.

"But if the OSCE is that committed to human rights, why does it not apply more pressure on Latvia to give full citizenship rights to the large Russian minority?" Borodavkin asked, arguing that the OSCE was applying double standards even on human rights.

"Russians in Latvia have a non-citizen status. They have been living in Latvia since the end of World War II but are still waiting for citizenship."

Latvia has insisted that there is no discrimination against Russians and the OSCE says the situation for minorities has improved.

Senior OSCE diplomats said the way the annual budget was distributed had become an issue because it gets to the heart of what the organization is supposed to do.

Borodvakin said last year`s budget allocated only 1.47 percent to the fight against terrorism, 3.3 percent to economic and environmental issues and 10 percent for military issues. "This is not a fair division of resources," he said.

The budget for 2005 was supposed to total €180 million.

Russia, Borodvakin said, wanted the organization to pay more attention to military, security, economic and environmental issues. Its share of the budget last year was €8.9 million.

Everts said there were "serious differences of interpretations over the role of the OSCE. The OSCE is about `soft security,` such as the rule of law, due process. These issues become more poignant and unacceptable for nations and states that have deficits in due process and the rule of law."

The OSCE, previously called the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, was the only international grouping during the cold war that brought together the United States, Canada, Eastern and Western Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Spawned by the 1975 Helsinki Final Act, it provided a rare forum in which these countries focused on three "baskets" for establishing confidence-building measures between two ideologically opposed camps. The first basket dealt with military and security issues, the second with economic and environmental and the third with human rights.