New Cold War.org, July 9, 2015
Approval by OSCE parliamentary assembly of anti-Russia resolution proposed by Kyiv occurs as Ukraine continues to shell its civilians in east of the country.
The annual parliamentary assembly of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe is meeting in Finland from July 5 to 9. On July 8, the assembly voted an anti-Russia resolution condemning Russia for supposed interference and intervention in Ukraine. The resolution was proposed by… Ukraine. It was co-sponsored by Canada, reports Sputnik.
The vote was nicely set up by host country Finland when it denied visas to several members of the Russian delegation due to attend, including the speaker of Russia’s State Duma, Sergei Naryshkin. The Finnish government cited European Union sanctions against Russia. Following that move, Moscow announced that the rest of its delegation would skip the meeting in protest.
Switzerland, Armenia and France refrained from voting on the resolution. The head of the French delegation, Michel Voisin, explained, “Today we believe that a solution in Ukraine requires a dialogue. To have such a dialogue requires two counterparts. At this point of time, we are in the situation that one of those partners is not attending. That is why I myself and the large part of French delegation have decided not to participate in the voting.”
The friendly OSCE vote on the Ukraine resolution occurred as the same time as the organization’s monitors in eastern Ukraine continue to document and report widespread war crimes being committed by Ukrainian armed forces and extremist militias.
Leaders of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics announced on July 7 that they are taking an appeal to the UN Security Council demanding that it conduct an investigation of Ukrainian war crimes.
