OSCE PA meeting in Vienna, marked by the controversy over the participation of Russian delegates
The Russian invasion of Ukraine will be the main topic of the two-day meeting of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, an event that opens today in Vienna and is marked by the controversy over the participation of Russian delegates.
The Russian delegation includes 18 deputies and is led by Pyotr Tolstoy, the deputy speaker of the Russian Duma. All members of the delegation that would participate in the OSCE meeting are sanctioned by the European Union.
Ukrainian and Lithuanian parliamentarians are boycotting the meeting because Russian delegates were allowed to attend. Austria's foreign ministry said that, as the country where the OSCE is based, it is obliged to issue visas, including for the Russian delegation.
At the meeting, around 300 parliamentarians from the remaining 55 OSCE member states will primarily express their views on the war in Ukraine.
Austria, which has been a neutral country since 1955, has refused to send weapons to Ukraine, and critics have accused Vienna of trying to maintain good relations with Moscow.
