MOSCOW, June 30 (RIA Novosti) – The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is in need of Russian-speaking specialists to work in Ukraine’s troubled regions, as simply monitoring the situation is no longer sufficient, Russia’s permanent representative to the OSCE, Andrei Kelin, said Monday.
“Currently an observer is not enough, a crisis management specialist, a person who can negotiate with local militia is needed. As you understand he or she should speak Russian, and not English with an interpreter,” Kelin said in an interview to RIA Novosti.
The diplomat recalled that right after the decision to send a special monitoring mission to Ukraine, “there was a huge number, heaps of resumes coming from various countries. The [OSCE] secretary-general said something like 500-600 resumes. But this was just at the start of the operation. When it was clear the work was really difficult, that there was shooting, that one can even die or be taken captive, people started to back off,” Kelin stressed.
According to Kelin, Russian monitors with the OSCE mission are “mostly experienced Interior Ministry retirees.”
OSCE monitors have been keeping a record of the situation in Ukraine’s eastern regions for several months, although their number has been reduced recently due to the “highly volatile situation” and following multiple detentions of its teams in the country.
