'Dialogue between the deaf': Finland navigates complex diplomacy with Russia during landmark OSCE year

When Finland stepped forward with an offer to chair the OSCE during its 50th anniversary year, they had no idea that one of the organisation’s largest member nations would invade another member just a few weeks later.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe is supposed to bring together 57 countries stretching from Vladivostok to Vancouver to promote comprehensive security models, protect human rights and democracy, and build sustainable economic development.

But in the devastating aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with the complicity of Belarus, another OSCE member, the organisation is facing challenges unlike ever before in its 50-year history.

"The OSCE has never been a club of like-minded countries, but now we are in a totally new situation as there is a full-scale invasion of one participating State to another,” says Toni Sandell, Deputy Head of the Foreign Ministry's OSCE Taskforce.

“But that doesn't mean the OSCE can't still be a platform to bring the opinions of the rest of the membership to the ears of the Russians. Every single week in Vienna, Russian actions are being condemned,” he tells Finland Insider.

And are the Russians listening to those messages? While it can't hurt to reinforce them regularly, Sandel concedes "Russia has not stopped its war. Have they been listening to anyone?”

Elina Valtonen’s very busy year

Finland’s Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen (NCP) will be very much in the spotlight in her role as chairperson of the OSCE during the next 12 months, with a travel schedule few people would envy.

This week she flew to Moldova for talks with the country’s leaders about their energy crisis and security issues in Transdniestria, a breakaway Moldovan province which is de-facto under Moscow’s influence.

“The OSCE has a strong mandate to advance the resolution of the Transdniestrian conflict and to support Moldova and its sovereignty. As the OSCE Chair, Finland is committed to working towards these goals,“ Valtonen said, urging “continued, open and constructive dialogue” to build trust and resolve disputes.

The situation in Moldova is of course just one of the geopolitical hot potatoes Valtonen and her Ulkoministeriö colleagues - more than three dozen Finnish diplomats in Helsinki and Vienna are assigned to OSCE roles - will have to juggle this year.

At the top of her list is of course the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and all the challenges associated with the situation on the ground there including energy security, safeguarding territorial integrity and guaranteeing human rights, which might seem like an uphill struggle.

This week Valtonen was in Kyiv for talks with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other leaders, where she underscored Finland’s “unwavering” support.

“Ukraine will remain at the core of the OSCE’s agenda throughout Finland’s chairpersonship,” she assured Zelenskyy.

At the start of her mandate in January, Valtonen said there was an “unprecedented need to defend” Europe’s collectively-agreed security order.

“When Russia challenges the foundations of our shared security, the rest of us must stand up for them, and stand tall."

This week, writing in The Economist, Valtonen urged international partners to hold their nerve on sanctions against Moscow, describing Russia as “far from an unstoppable force of nature.”

She called on the US and Europe not to back down with economic or military support for Kyiv, and said that Ukraine’s international partners need to keep applying pressure “until Russia starts to engage with the world in a peaceful manner, respecting the UN Charter and international law,” although she didn’t mention any specific OSCE role in making this happen.

Is the OSCE still relevant?

When Finland joined the OSCE in 1975, it was a moment in history when Helsinki was trying to balance on a very fine wire between the East and West during President Urho Kekkonen’s ‘Finlandization’ years.

Since then, Finland has turned fully towards the West and joined the EU and NATO. So does that make the OSCE just another voice in a multilateral space which includes the Council of Europe and the United Nations, or can it still truly have an effective role to play in European security?

“The OSCE is one of the victims of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine and it’s in the midst of a financial and organisational crisis. The reason is Russian obstructionism, which blocks important decisions and appointments vital for the smooth functioning of the organisation,” explains Niklas Helwig, a Leading Researcher in EU foreign policy and defence cooperation at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs FIIA.

But despite Russian aggression undermining the OSCE’s idea of cooperative and comprehensive security, Helwig says the organisation still remains relevant as the only regional grouping which still includes Russia as a member.

The OSCE, he tells Finland Insider, “will likely have a role to play in implementing a just peace in Ukraine in the future. For example in order to implement and monitor a ceasefire or peace agreement,”

“That role cannot be taken over by NATO, as it would not be seen as legitimate by Russia,” explains Helwig, although Russia’s deputy OSCE ambassador Aleksandr Volgarev says this won’t be the case as the OSCE has become “a tool for promoting the interests of NATO.”

‘Dialogue with the deaf’

The OSCE usually takes decisions on the basis of consensus but in some cases is able to act without Russian or Belarussian agreement, thanks to a process ironically called the Moscow Mechanism which was first introduced in 1991.

It empowers the OSCE to monitor and catalogue human rights violations by Russia in Ukraine, and ultimately supports accountability.

"As far as the OSCE's work on the ground in Ukraine, there's a specific programme which is supported financially by most of the member countries to build resilience in the face of Russian aggression," explains the Foreign Ministry’s Toni Sandell.

"The OSCE is still relevant despite the conflict situation, and doing important work on the ground through its field missions where its presence is really grass-rooted to support rule of law and human rights and democracy commitments".

The organisation's election monitoring work has become the international gold standard for democracy over the decades, while OSCE programmes also have a remit to protect national minorities, and support a comprehensive security dialogue.

Sandell describes the current situation between Russia and Ukraine as "a dialogue between the deaf," but strikes an optimistic note.

"There's no real fruitful dialogue at present, but there is a platform there available. And the day will come when dialogue is needed."