OSCE vice president: no business as usual with Russia and Belarus

July 16, BPN. The new vice president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has said in an interview that there will be no business as usual with Russia and Belarus as long as Russia continues its illegal war of aggression and Belarus supports it.

Germany’s Daniela De Ridder referred to a resolution of the OSCE PA’s annual session, held in Vancouver from June 30 to July 4. Politicians responsible for war crimes should know that they will not go unpunished, she said.

In the resolution, OSCE PA had condemned the Belarusian authorities’ “far-reaching support” of Russia’s war on Ukraine, including military logistics and provision of locations for Russian troops. “Belarus is thereby moving ever closer to the status of an active war party,” it noted.

The “violently imperial and colonial” nature of Russia is fully manifested in the “soft annexation of Belarus,” said the forum of legislators who work together to make their countries more peaceful, prosperous and democratic.