OSCE Turns a Deaf Ear to Security and Cooperation with Russia

Jan. 13, 2022 (EIRNS)—If we soon die in nuclear exchange, a hypothetical historian of the future might point to the kabuki theater performance carried out in Vienna today, where the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) met. One of its members, Russia, believes its security is compromised as heavy weaponry is moved up to its border, including missiles capable of striking Moscow within five minutes. It is pretty much a “Cuban Missile Crisis,” in reverse. The Russians present their case—but they are not even given the dignity of being told that they are wrong. Rather, their words simply disappear.

The press briefing by Russia’s envoy to the OSCE Alexander Lukashevich, as reported in TASS, was: “Regrettably, we have not heard an adequate response or some reaction to our proposals from our partners. Everything revolved around their concerns and Russia’s allegedly aggressive behavior, in particular, in the Ukrainian context. They have interpreted in their own way the principle of indivisibility of security, enshrined in the OSCE documents.” That is, while the OSCE documents hold dear mutual security, a deaf ear is turned when one of its members raises the issue.

“We put a specific emphasis on the behavior of the U.S. and NATO that continue to ‘develop’ militarily the territories of the states that joined the Alliance, and deploy strike weapon systems there, which poses a direct and immediate threat” to Russia. Lukashevich offered, according to Pravda, that the “systemic degradation” of the OSCE was to be blamed on the heavy hand of the United States and NATO.

Putin has been very clear that Russia has been pushed back so far, that it has no place left to retreat. The Russians’ only option, should the West choose not to respond, is “military-technical.” As Lukashevich put it, “We’re a peace-loving nation, but we do not need peace at any cost.”