29.06.2025 Porto, Portugal. Today the 32nd Annual Session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly has started under the theme “Commemorating 50 Years of the Helsinki Final Act: Responding to a New Reality in the OSCE.”
Ms. Pia Kauma, president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, addressed the audience with a reminder of the Helsinki Act, as the fruit of the diplomatic efforts of the great statesman of those days. They regarded the document as “political and moral commitments aimed at lessening tensions and opening further the lines of communication between peoples of East and West”. Kauma underlined that Ford, and Brezhnev, or d’Estaing, and Ceaușescu were not “friends”, but they were engaged in the process due to the sense of responsibility towards their people.
The president commended OSCE for elections observation missions, recognizing that democratic elections create grounds for legitimate, and functional government. The OSCE observes elections throughout its 57 participating states. It also provides technical assistance to improve the legislative and administrative framework for elections in specific countries.
However it is the war in Ukraine, which remains the major focus, and challenge for the Organization, which has been engaged in maintaining peace, and security since the signature of the Helsinki Final Act on August 1, 1975.
The panels with photographs of these historic event in Helsinki have been decorating the interior of the event.
However the Ukraine’s fierce foe – Russia has been still absent, ignoring the anniversary of the Helsinki Act, and the Assembly congregation. Before the invasion Russian delegation actively participated in the OSCE PA activities. It included five members of the Federation Council and 10 deputies of the State Duma. The head is Deputy Chairman of the State Duma P.O. Tolstoy.
Russia’s annual contribution to the OSCE amounted to approximately 7.7 million euros. Including more than 5.5 million euros payments to the OSCE Unified Budget (approximately 138.2 million euros) and more than 2 million euros were aimed to finance the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, which gathered information and reports each day on the security situation, and in response to specific incidents on the ground with spot reports. These calculations were based on the current OSCE scales of contributions, according to which Russia’s shared 6% for financing the OSCE Secretariat and institutions and 2.5% for financing its field missions. All of those were suspended by Duma.
Earlier on July 3, 2024 Russian lawmakers voted to suspend Moscow’s participation in the Parliamentary Assembly (PA) of the OSCE, accusing the body of “double standards and total Russophobia.”
In a statement, both chambers of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation accused the OSCE PA of depriving Russia “under spurious pretexts, of the opportunity to continue dialog and to participate fully and equally in the work of the plenary sessions and governing bodies of the OSCE PA.”
In their statement, the Russian lawmakers criticized the fact that they have been denied visas to attend the 2022 PA sessions in Birmingham and Warsaw, the 2023 PA session in Vancouver as well as the 2024 PA session in Bucharest.
“The non-admission of the Russian delegation to these events predetermined the adoption of the only possible decision to suspend payments to the OSCE PA budget. This suspension has been used to deprive the members of the Russian delegation of the right to vote, thus excluding representatives of our country from participation in decision-making,” the Russian statement read.
One year later there are no signs of rapprochement, on contrary the rhetoric has been increasingly hush, and full of remorse.
These days President Putin emphasized that it is not Russia, but the West, who is aggressive: “For eight years, Russia tried to resolve the problems in Donbas peacefully, but the West deceived Russia and waged an undeclared war there.
💬 President of Russia Vladimir #Putin:
❗️ We are planning to cut the defence expenses next year and the year after. And Europe is thinking about raising its defence expenses.
So, who is getting ready for any aggressive actions, us or them?https://t.co/EWAcuVtZnQ pic.twitter.com/ZjDIUNFfAD
— MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) June 28, 2025
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The largest event on the Assembly’s calendar, the Annual Session will culminate in the adoption of the Porto Declaration on 3 July, containing recommendations to national governments, parliaments and the international community in the fields of security, human rights, and economic and environmental concerns. The Assembly will also elect its leadership for the coming year, including a new President.
Anna van Densky from Porto, June 29, 2025
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