This article, published in the French daily newspaper Le Figaro on 6 December 2005, the final day of the 13th Ministerial Council of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), held in Ljubljana, considers the main issue over which the United States and Russia continue to clash, 30 years after the signing of the Helsinki Final Act, and which is preventing them from reaching an agreement on the Organisation’s mandate, namely respect for democracy and human rights in the former Soviet Republics.