Russians boycott European meeting after Finland denies visas to 6 officials
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Version 0 of 1. VIENNA — A diplomatic row is brewing between Russia and Finland over Helsinki’s refusal to grant entry visas to six Russian officials who are on a sanctions blacklist over the crisis in Ukraine. Sergei Naryshkin, the speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament, was among those barred from traveling to Helsinki this weekend for a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). He told reporters Thursday that the Kremlin considers it “unacceptable” to pare down its 15-member delegation and will boycott the meeting. The flap illustrates how Russia is trying to get around a punishing set of U.S. and European Union sanctions and entry bans targeting individuals and corporations. The measures were imposed in response to Russian support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. OSCE monitors in Ukraine serve as the closest approximation to neutral arbiters there, and the organization has been involved in negotiations with the pro-Moscow rebels. [Ukraine’s prime minister: ‘Putin wants us to fail’] The Russian delegation was slated to attend the OSCE parliamentary assembly session beginning Sunday. This year, the annual meeting commemorates the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Helsinki Accords, which improved relations between Western and Eastern Europe and led to the creation of the OSCE. But the Finnish Foreign Ministry announced late Tuesday that it would not make exceptions to an E.U. travel ban on the six blacklisted Russians. It said the rest of the Russian delegation was welcome to come. In a letter to fellow members of the OSCE parliamentary assembly, the institution’s president and a prominent Finnish politician, Ilkka Kanerva, noted that adherence to the bans was decided by the Finnish government, not the OSCE. “On the other hand, the EU sanctions regime is in place because of the clear and gross violation of international norms . . . by the Russian Federation,” he said in the letter, a copy of which was provided to The Washington Post. “Nevertheless, the decision is an unfortunate embodiment of the grave challenges the European security architecture is facing at the moment. The growing mistrust and lack of confidence between the east and the west calls for reversal of this trend, and the OSCE can play a central role in this process.” [The Ukraine crisis] The Kremlin summoned the Finnish ambassador to lodge a formal complaint, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Finland’s decision “outrageous.” “Even given the illegal sanctions decisions of the E.U., exceptions from them should apply to occasions of this kind,” Igor Neverov, a Russian Foreign Ministry official, told the news agency Interfax. “But this does not dissolve the most negative symbolism of this decision, and we definitely see it as unfriendly and inconsistent with principles of neighborliness.” Naryshkin, the Russian lawmaker, is one of about 150 Russians and Ukrainians on the E.U. blacklist for their roles in the Ukraine conflict. He was placed there in March 2014 because he “publicly supported the deployment of Russian forces in Ukraine” and the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. Russia, in turn, has banned almost 90 Europeans, including several politicians who have criticized Russia’s activities in Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin. Naryshkin said the Russian delegation hopes to attend the OSCE’s next meeting, scheduled to be held this fall in Mongolia. Natasha Abbakumova in Moscow contributed to this report. Read more: Five key questions — and answers — about the OSCE mission in Ukraine To buoy shaky Ukrainian government, U.S. pledging aid and sending troops to E. Europe Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world |