Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: Austria, which has had a position of military neutrality since long, is facing heavy criticism for granting visas to sanctioned Russian lawmakers in order to attend an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OCSE) meeting in Vienna.
Vienna has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that began almost a year ago, however, also maintained its view that there was a need to maintain diplomatic ties with Moscow.
Austria hosts a number of United Nations agencies and international organizations including the OSCE, which was set up during the Cold War as a forum for dialogue between East and West.
Russia is among 57 nations in North America, Asia, and Europe that participate in the Vienna-based organization.
Letter calls for banning participation of Russian lawmakers
For OSCE’s parliamentary assembly meeting on 23 to 24 February, Moscow intends to send delegates. The members of the delegation include 15 Russian lawmakers who are sanctioned by the European Union sanctions. Deputy Duma Chairman Pyotr Tolstoy and parliament member Leonid Slutsky are among those targeted.
In a letter to Austria’s chancellor and other officials, eighty-one OSCE delegates from around 20 countries, including Canada, Britain, France, Ukraine, and Poland, called upon Austria’s government to ban the participation of the sanctioned Russians.
