OSCE SYG DE BRICHAMBAUT'S VISIT: "REFORM"

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 003024 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/21/2017 TAGS: PREL PGOV KDEM OSCE RS SUBJECT: OSCE SYG DE BRICHAMBAUT'S VISIT: "REFORM" DOMINATES TALKS REF: A. MOSCOW 3012 ¶B. MOSCOW 2419 Classified By: Political M/C Alice G. Wells. Reasons: 1.4(B/D). ¶1. (C) We met with MFA OSCE Section Chief Valeriy Maslin to review OSCE Secretary General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut's June 14-15 visit. De Brichambaut was in Moscow on a working visit and met with FM Lavrov, as well as with the Russian Security Council, Defense Ministry and the Central Election Commission. Maslin characterized the meetings as routine, noting that de Brichambaut made an effort to visit Russia annually. He said the meetings gave the GOR a chance to reiterate the importance of its OSCE "reform" proposals. ¶2. (C) Maslin said that FM Lavrov pushed the idea of an OSCE Charter with de Brichambaut, arguing that the Russian draft now circulating at OSCE would give the organization the ability to work more effectively on the basis of "agreed norms" that "codified" an existing patchwork of treaty obligations and OSCE decisions. Maslin tied the adoption of a Charter to ongoing negotiations over the OSCE's legal personality and privileges and immunities. He said the GOR believes that there is a logical connection between an organizational charter which describes the functions of the OSCE and a convention that provided a legal basis for the organization. When pressed, Maslin said that the GOR "was not in a hurry" to see the adoption of a Charter, acknowledging that it had not yet gained traction with many other OSCE delegations. ¶3. (C) Maslin said that Lavrov also highlighted the "food for thought" paper the GOR had circulated suggesting changes to ODIHR election monitoring. The GOR complained as well about a lack of balance among the activities in each OSCE dimension; the meeting with an MOD representative had been designed to underline the importance of the security dimension. Maslin flagged the U.S.-Russian initiative to hold the May 31-June 1 Conference for Public-Private Partnerships in Combating Counterterrorism and GOR support for a counter-narcotics conference to be held at the end of June in Vienna as evidence of Russia's efforts to "rebalance" OSCE programs. ¶4. (C) De Brichambaut also met with recently appointed Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairman Vladimir Churov. Maslin, who attended the meeting, said that Churov stressed that Russia would abide by its international obligations on election monitoring. Preliminary discussions had begun with ODIHR about monitoring, but it was still too early to reach any final conclusions. Maslin thought that by the end of September, there would be a clearer understanding of ODIHR's role in the Russian Duma elections this coming December and next March's presidential elections. BURNS