Russia denounces Western targeting of diplomat
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has denounced Western pressure that resulted in a last-minute refusal to let the ministry’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, travel to Malta for an international event.
This week, Valletta is hosting a foreign ministers’ meeting of member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a security and human rights body. Zakharova was supposed to be part of the Russian delegation.
On Wednesday, the spokeswoman announced that she would not be present at the two-day gathering, due to what she called “scheming of the Western hydra” against Russian diplomats.
“The Maltese issued a visa. But today, almost at the moment before the plane took off, they revoked their own decision and annulled the visa, citing ‘circumstances outside their control’,” she said.
The incident amounted to “abuse of the function of the OSCE chairmanship,” Lavrov said on Thursday, referring to Malta’s current role in the organization. Speaking to his counterparts, the foreign minister said the decision fits a pattern of discrimination against Russia, which undermines the OSCE’s core mandate.
“I am issuing this warning in full seriousness: the OSCE exists while there is consensus, while each state’s interests are guaranteed,” the top diplomat said. “Now there are neither consensus nor guarantees left.”
Washington was not satisfied with having NATO and the EU, so it has fully subjected… the OSCE secretariat. And that is not the end of it.
The Maltese Foreign Ministry said three EU members refused to agree to a special waiver, which would have allowed the Russian official to fly to the Mediterranean island nation despite being on the EU’s personal sanctions list, the Times of Malta reported. The ministry did not name the countries, but the paper cited sources as claiming that Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were behind Zakharova’s visa trouble.
Latvia and Lithuania are boycotting the meeting due to Lavrov’s presence, the newspaper added.
Zakharova said the situation was similar to what happened in November 2023, when Bulgaria refused to let a Russian government plane pass through its airspace because the spokeswoman was on board. The flight’s destination was Skopje, North Macedonia, which was hosting that year’s OSCE Ministerial Council.
