Russians boycott European summit over Finnish blacklist
Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin has been refused entry to attend an OSCE meeting in Finland because he is on a sanctions blacklist for his role in the Ukraine crisis. (Patrick Hertzog/AFP/Getty Images)
By Carol Morello-July 2VIENNA — 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.
Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin, who was among the Russians barred from traveling to Helsinki this weekend for a parliamentary meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, told reporters Thursday that the Kremlin considers it “unacceptable” to pare down its 15-member delegation. So Moscow is boycotting the meeting entirely.
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 over Russian support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. OSCE monitors in Ukraine are the closest thing there is to a neutral arbiter there, and the organization has been involved in negotiations with the Russian-backed rebels.
The Russian delegation was slated to attend the OSCE parliamentary assembly beginning Sunday. The annual meeting this year 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 the travel bans 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 the ban 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 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 is one of about 150 Russians and Ukrainians named on an 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.
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Carol Morello is the diplomatic correspondent for The Washington Post, covering the State Department.
Carol Morello is the diplomatic correspondent for The Washington Post, covering the State Department.
