Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov lambasted the present state of European security on Saturday, calling it ineffective and outdated, but he failed to rally significant support for a new security treaty.
The criticism came a day after the Foreign Ministry expressed its concern over Romania's decision to host U.S. interceptor missiles as part of a European anti-missile shield that has been a sticking point in relations with Washington.
"European security has become undermined on all parameters over the past 20 years," Lavrov said during his speech at the Munich security conference.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has become "atrophied," and its role has been reduced to supporting "the politics of expanding NATO, which meant not only keeping the lines dividing Europe but a conscious choice to move these lines eastward," he said, Interfax reported.
As of Sunday evening, the Foreign Ministry had not posted a transcript of his remarks.
"One does not need proof that the principle is not working," Lavrov said, citing the 1999 bombings of Yugoslavia and the conflict in South Ossetia as examples.
He has been lobbying for a new security treaty with Europe, an initiative of President Dmitry Medvedev in 2008, but with little success.
Some politicians have supported Russia's idea to reform the OSCE and "said the proposals deserve to be discussed further," Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Glushko told reporters in Munich, without commenting on which countries had voiced their support.
Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's envoy to NATO, told Itar-Tass that the proposal "was basically supported by the new German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle," without elaborating.
European leaders, while not refusing Russia's proposed security treaty, have only made general remarks about continuing dialog. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said new treaties would be too complicated to negotiate.
"Strategic partnership with Russia is not only key in reaching European security but in solving global problems," Westerwelle said at the conference Saturday.
But the surprise Romanian announcement, made Thursday by President Traian Basescu, could renew Moscow's frustration with Washington, which it says is expanding its defense capabilities in Europe at Russia's expense.
Basescu said the country's top defense body had approved the proposal to host missiles, which was made by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden during a visit to Bucharest in October. The specifics of the plan are still under discussion, he said, but the interceptors would be operational by 2015.
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday that it was concerned and demanding clarification.
Rogozin criticized the Romanian missile plan, saying on Ekho Moskvy radio Friday that his country needed to know that the missiles were not directed against Russia. But he also said the issue would not influence Russian-U.S. negotiations to sign a new arms reduction treaty.
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