The information, which appeared in the Austrian online newspaper Die Presse, states that these parliamentarians are asking the government in Vienna not to issue visas for Russian deputies to attend the meeting to be held on February 23rd and 24th.

However, the Austrian Foreign Ministry assures that as the host country of the OSCE it is obliged to allow access to delegates from all OSCE partner states.

In November last year, Russia accused Poland, which at the time chaired the OSCE, of preventing Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov from attending the December ministerial meeting in the Polish city of Lodz.

jrr/abo/ro/fvt