MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) on Thursday that the West was killing off any chances of reviving the grouping which he said was on the brink of collapse.
Speaking in Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, at a meeting which Ukraine and some of its allies had boycotted, Lavrov said:
"There are no particular reasons for optimism at present. The OSCE is essentially being turned into an appendage of NATO and the European Union.
"The organisation, let's face it, is on the edge of a precipice. A simple question arises: does it make sense to make efforts to revitalise it?"
Lavrov accused the West of waging "hybrid war" against Russia and said the European Union had become an "aggressive political project".
The 57-member OSCE is the successor to a Cold War-era organisation for Soviet and Western powers to engage but is now largely paralysed by Russia's ongoing use of the effective veto each country has.
(Reporting by ReutersEditing by Andrew Osborn)
