Russia “Almost Completely Isolated” At OSCE, U.S. Envoy Says

The U.S. ambassador to the OSCE on Friday said that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was 'a strategic miscalculation of epic proportions' as the country has become almost completely isolated, and it is hemorrhaging both hard power and soft power, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

"Russia obviously failed to conquer Ukraine," Ambassador Michael Carpenter said during a special online briefing organized by the State Department's Brussels Media Hub.

According to him, the reason why the international community has rallied around Ukraine is that this is not just a dispute over territory. "Fundamentally, this is an attempt to erase Ukraine from the map of sovereign countries," he said.

At the OSCE, Carpenter said, there is only one country that defends Russia’s war of aggression, and that is Belarus, which is a co-aggressor. "We are isolating Russia diplomatically and politically," he added.

While there is no mechanism to expel Russia from the OSCE, Carpenter said, "what we can do and what we are doing is we are isolating Russia and Belarus diplomatically every week."

Asked by TURAN's Washington correspondent about the upcoming OSCE Parliamentary Assembly session as the host country Austria has reportedly allowed sanctioned Russian parliamentarians to attend the big security meeting on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion, Carpenter said, nobody should be under any illusions that the Russian delegation "are people that you can have a discussion with on any topic that would be useful."

"Many of the members of Russia’s delegation have been sanctioned by the United States and our EU partners, and for good reason," he reminded.  "These are not people who deserve to be able to travel to Western countries. They’ve done bad things. That’s why they’ve been sanctioned."

He went on to add, "... Furthermore, they are propaganda conduits for the Kremlin, and I see no reason why anyone should have to listen to them. There is no dialogue that is going to take place, no meaningful dialogue with these individuals."

As for the OSCE PA, Carpenter said, "I can only hope that Russia’s actions will be roundly condemned at the Parliamentary Assembly just like they are here in the [OSCE] Permanent Council."

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.