Moscow Indicated Inadmissibility Of Discrimination Of Crimean Delegates To OSCE Leadership

The Russian delegation at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) pointed out to the OSCE's leadership that it was unacceptable to discriminate against Crimean representatives within the organization, Deputy Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department for Humanitarian Cooperation and Human Rights Grigory Lukyantsev said on Tuesday.

WARSAW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th September, 2018) The Russian delegation at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) pointed out to the OSCE's leadership that it was unacceptable to discriminate against Crimean representatives within the organization, Deputy Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department for Humanitarian Cooperation and Human Rights Grigory Lukyantsev said on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, some representatives from Crimea were prevented from speaking in Warsaw at a meeting of the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). A member of the Ukrainian delegation interrupted each statement by the Crimean delegates with remarks that Crimea was an "occupied territory" and that representatives of the peninsula could not speak on behalf of Russia. A representative from Canada, in turn, offered to withdraw the Crimean delegates from the room, but this statement was ignored.

"I would say that we undertook a demarche before the OSCE ODIHR leadership, and, in particular, met with the first deputy director and pointed out to her the inadmissibility of repeating incidents similar to what took place during the morning working session .

.. At least two representatives of our civil society were deprived of the opportunity to speak. They were registered to participate in the event in full compliance with the rules," Lukyantsev told reporters.

Moscow considered it unacceptable to use an OSCE platform to challenge the territorial integrity of an OSCE member state, according to Lukyantsev.

The Crimean peninsula, formerly a part of Ukraine, rejoined Russia in 2014 following a referendum. Kiev and the majority of Western countries have refused to recognize the legitimacy of the referendum and accused Moscow of annexing the peninsula. Russia, however, has repeatedly stated that the vote was held in compliance with international law.