The Russian government on Sunday condemned what it understood as Poland’s «veto» of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s participation in the OSCE Council of Foreign Ministers in the Polish city of Lodz.
This past Friday, Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Lukasz Jasina indicated that «Lavrov is not expected» at the meeting after national media reported that the Warsaw government was contemplating banning the minister’s participation, reports the official Polish news agency PAP.
«The decision by Poland, which is the current chairman of the OSCE, to veto the participation of the Russian foreign minister in the OSCE Foreign Ministers’ Council meeting in Lodz on December 1-2 is an unprecedented provocation,» the statement carried by Interfax laments.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) had already denied visas on Wednesday to the Russian delegation, which had requested them in order to attend the Parliamentary Assembly to be held in Warsaw, the Polish capital, between November 24 and 26.
Barbara Bartus, who heads the Polish delegation, has replied to the Russian deputies that «there is no possibility» of receiving these visas, as Vladimir Khabarov, vice-chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian Senate, informed in a statement.
«We were not hopeful about the possibility of achieving full participation in the next session to be held in Warsaw but we still requested to attend,» he said before stating that, «unfortunately, an outrageous response has been received from the Polish delegation.»
