MINSK, November 6 (RIA Novosti) - The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has become irrelevant, because it is unable to perform its functions, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday.
“The West and the United States were interested in it [OSCE] when the powerful USSR was there standing up against them. Today they don’t need this organization,” he said, adding that Belarus also has little use for the organization.
Lukashenko's comments came two weeks after the OSCE said the Belarus parliamentary elections on September 23 were not free, impartial or democratic.
“The Organization would be necessary if it adhered to what it declared upon its establishment,” he said.
“Today the OSCE does nothing to ensure security while its cooperation is aimed at division, at discord.”
Lukashenko was especially displeased with the OSCE’s assessment of elections in the post-Soviet space.
“What kind of cooperation is it when they arrived in Belarus ahead of the election with a ready made report that they presented later,” he said.
“The same happened in Ukraine.”
The OSCE, which had 330 election observers in Belarus, said many prominent politicians "remained in prison or were not eligible to register because of their criminal record."
