The Russian man narrowed

The organization on security and cooperation in Europe, due to the resistance of Russia, again could not expand the mandate of the OSCE observation mission at Russian checkpoints "Gukovo" and "Donetsk" in the Rostov region on the border with Ukraine. This was reported by a regular representative of the United States under the OSCE Daniel Bar.

The constant council of representatives of 57 OSCE member countries, where decisions are made by a full consensus, was only able to extend for another three months, until March 23, 2015, the current mandate of this mission, the OSCE press service reports . As before, it will consist of only 22 observers.

The United States draws attention to the fact that Russia has already prevented the expansion of the mandate of this mission to other checkpoints and the border sections between them, Bar said at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna. This causes serious doubts about the desire of Russia to fulfill the critical moments of the Minsk protocol, one of the points of which provides for the role of the OSCE in monitoring and verification on both sides of the Ukrainian-Russian international border.

Russia also impedes the complete implementation of the mandate of another OSCE mission - a special monitoring mission in Ukraine, operates throughout Ukrainian territory, said a US representative. Moscow does not allow this mission to work in the Ukrainian Crimea occupied by it.

On December 4, the chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the organization Ilkka Kanerva said that Russia plunged the OSCE into a crisis , violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. He also called for extending and expanding the activities of the OSCE SMM in the east of Ukraine and as soon as possible to bring the number of observers to the maximum. In addition, he urged to consider additional initiatives to maintain peace.

On November 13, Kanerva, presenting a report on the situation in Ukraine, said that SMM observers have unacceptable restrictions when working on the Russian-Ukrainian border.

“In order to come to an agreement by the presence of the OSCE mission at Russian posts“ Gukovo ”and“ Donetsk ”on the Ukrainian -Russian border, unacceptable restrictions on the mission of the mission were introduced,” Kanereva noted. “Let’s frankly: the mission is only allowed to report that she sees in her official raids on a negligible section of the border. If it is impossible to do it properly, the question arises, is it necessary to do it at all?

The next day, the deputy head of the SMM Alexander Khug said that the mission has been expanded to 500 people . "The mission is currently expanded to 500 people. Of these, 350 will work in the DPR and LPR," said Hug. According to him, the OSCE representatives will observe the situation and contribute to the settlement of the conflict.