Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke at a security meeting and criticized the NATO global military alliance as well as the West before walking out.
During his fiery remarks on Thursday at the annual meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Lavrov derided the international body as an "appendage" of the EU and NATO.
Sergei Lavrov Speaks at Security Meeting
The Russian foreign minister also blamed NATO's supposed reckless expansion to the East for war coming back to Europe that has torn into the OSCE itself. Lavrov added that the organization is already on the brink of a precipice and the question that remains is if it still makes sense to invest in revitalizing it.
His speech was heard by dozens of other foreign ministers in the North Macedonian capital, Skopje. Lavrov spent 15 minutes speaking before completely walking out of the meeting after blaming what he described as Western tolerance of the "ruling neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv," as per EuroNews.
The Russian official needed to get special permission in order to fly over European airspace to attend the security meeting. It was his first visit to a NATO-allied country since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Three Baltic countries, namely Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, boycotted the OSCE meeting along with Ukraine due to Lavrov's presence. The Western ministers who attended the event were sharply critical of the Russian foreign minister after he spoke.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen spoke after Lavrov walked out and said that Russia's attempts to blame others for its own choices are "transparent." He added that they will not compromise on the core principles of the European security order or allow Moscow to deny Ukraine the right to make its own independent foreign and security policy choices.
During his speech, Lavrov said that the very existence of Russians and their decisive contribution to the history of Ukraine is being "denied." He added that there was plenty of evidence but argued that the OSCE and its relevant institutions remain silent, according to Yahoo News.
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Criticizing NATO and the West
Lavrov's controversial speech comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly claimed that the Ukrainian government is made up of "neo-Nazis." This is despite the country having a democratically elected Jewish president who lost relatives in the Holocaust.
Putin and other Moscow officials have invoked the Holocaust, World War II, and Nazism to defend their invasion of Kyiv. Historians said that they see these attempts as disinformation and a cynical ploy.
The OSCE is the 57-member successor to a Cold War-era organization for Soviet and Western powers to engage. However, it has largely been paralyzed because of Russia's ongoing use of the effective veto that each country has.
The United States and its allies are seeking simultaneously to keep the OSCE alive as well as hold Moscow accountable for its invasion of Ukraine. They are attending the meeting while also making a point of denouncing the Kremlin's actions. It is a stance that some of Ukraine's closest allies have little truck with, said the Voice of America News.
