ISO Secretary-General Sergio Mujica recorded an official congratulatory video for EASC, a regional accreditation group that includes Russia, Belarus, and other former Soviet states. The video was posted on YouTube on March 12, two weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, with the support of Belarus.
The Ukraine invasion was fully underway as of February 24th. In his address, Mujica thanks EASC for its commitment to “making lives easier, safer, and better through standards.” As of this writing, nearly 700 people are dead from the invasion, and Russia is targeting civilian population centers.
EASC is the Euro-Asian Council for Standardization, Metrology and Certification, and is working to form a new, official IAF regional body called EAAC (Euro-Asian Accreditation Cooperation.) The new body would comprise countries currently under international sanctions for the Russian invasions of Crimea and Ukraine. To date, the IAF has supported the initiative, and refused to denounce Russia nor stop allowing accreditations to be granted in Russia and Belarus.
Likewise, ISO has refused to stop selling products in Russia and Belarus, nor to honor EU and international sanctions against affected companies and individuals. Oxebridge reported earlier that sources close to ISO revealed at least two meetings had been held on the subject, and Mujica and the ISO Executive office refused to address the sanctions or stop selling products in the region. ISO standards are officially distributed through Rosstandart, and ISO sells their products directly to Russia and Belarus through its online webstore.
ISO has close ties with China, and its’ current president, Ulrica Franke, is the fifth consistent ISO President with ties to that country. China has supported the Russian invasion, which may explain ISO’s reluctance to denounce it.
The Mujica video, however, goes far beyond merely refusing to acknowledge the invasion, and appears to openly throw ISO’s official support at the nations responsible. Meanwhile, neither ISO nor Mujica has made any statement supporting Ukraine.
The full video appears here.
CORRECTION: The original story reported that the Mujica video appeared one week after the invasion; in fact, it was two weeks.
