Swiss police, anti-OSCE protestors clash in Basel

Riot police in Switzerland have fired smoke bombs and clashed with demonstrators in the northwestern city of Basel at the end of a European meeting of foreign ministers.

The demonstration took place on Friday following the meeting of foreign ministers from member countries of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the city.

At the end of the two-day meeting, protesters took to the streets of Basel, shouting and holding large anti-OSCE banners.

Talks at the OSCE summit were focused on the crisis in Ukraine. The campaign against terrorism was also on the agenda of the foreign ministers’ talks of the 57-member organization.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticized the West on Friday for constant attempts to blame Russia for the crisis in east Ukraine, urging direct dialog between Kiev and Ukraine’s eastern breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk to end the conflict.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday that Russia has isolated itself internationally through its actions in Ukraine, urging Moscow to stop its support for pro-Russian forces in Ukraine as the only way to rebuild international credibility.

Tensions between Russia and the West heightened after Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea rejoined the Russian Federation following a referendum in March.

Relations were strained further after Ukraine launched military operations in mid-April to silence pro-Russia protests in the country’s mainly Russian-speaking regions in eastern Ukraine.