The stage of the United Nations Organization (UN) is more than used to programming works of the theater of the absurd. However, it is difficult to exceed the peak reached this Monday at the Security Council session. Nothing similar in the 78-year history of the institution.
The Security Council, the highest power body of the multilateral organization that emerged from the destruction caused by Nazism to fight for global peace, showed an image that undermines its founding principle.
Sergei Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia, the country that has invaded neighboring Ukraine, which keeps international stability in check and even threatens to use a nuclear weapon if it does not get its way, served as president of the executive body of the UN, which was used for the sole purpose of extolling the war (special military operation) and condemning any mediation effort.
Due to the rotating system, this month it is Russia’s turn to occupy the presidency of the Security Council, an opportunity that Lavrov did not miss to carry out a propaganda exercise at a meeting called by him to discuss multilateralism and the principles of the UN Charter. , that your country goes through the lining.
This is the UN, the house of peace. Lavrov has precisely been, after its president, Vladimir Putin, the main spokesperson in favor of the new Russian imperialism and the main preacher of a possible mass destruction with the atomic bomb under the philosophy of “if I don’t win, we all lose”.
Instrumentalizing this platform has its risks, although the Russian minister, due to his apparent conduct, should not care that he does not care. But she had to listen as US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield asked her to look into the eyes of Elizabeth Whelan, whose brother, Paul, has been detained and convicted in Russia for more than four years. Lavrov just looked at some papers. Antony Blinken, his counterpart in the Washington government, did not attend this call.
The diplomat denounced that Moscow keeps Whelan and other US citizens, such as journalist Evan Gershkovich, recently arrested on espionage charges when he was a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, as “human bargaining chips.”
Furthermore, Thomas-Greenfield denounced Russian hypocrisy. “The issue of multilateralism is important, even though the meeting was called by a member who shows flagrant disregard for the United Nations Charter.” He read the first two articles, which establish respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and human rights, to underline Russia’s contempt for all of this.
Also, the 27 countries of the European Union, before the start of the session, denounced the shamelessness” of the Kremlin. “By organizing this debate, Russia tries to present itself as a defender of the UN Charter and multilateralism. Nothing is further from the truth. It is cynical,” said EU representative Olof Skoog, surrounded by all the ambassadors of this cluster. “The Ukrainian people have paid the highest price, but the damaging impacts of Russian aggression are being felt all over the world,” he noted.
Inside the room, next to Lavrov, sat the organization’s secretary general, António Guterres, who did not miss the opportunity to try to get him to show his colors.
“The Russian invasion of Ukraine, in violation of the United Nations Charter and international law, is causing massive suffering and devastation in the country and its population,” stressed Guterres, who also pointed out that the conflict is further worsening the global economic problems unleashed by the pandemic.
“The tensions between the main powers are at a historical point and so are the risks of the conflict at the expense of misfortune or miscalculation,” he added.
Then Lavrov took the floor, in a 22-minute speech, with his gaze fixed on the written pages, from which he practically did not take his eyes off. He picked up Guterres’s gauntlet, but assured that everything is to blame for the West, surrendered to the United States, which together with its allies have placed the world in a harmful situation in which Russia, which continues to bomb Ukraine (and even itself ), is the great victim.
“As was the case during the Cold War, we have reached a dangerous threshold, perhaps even more dangerous,” said Lavrov, who accused Western powers of “destroying the benefits of globalization” with “economic aggression” and of seeking impose their policies on the rest of the world by force.
“No one gave the Western minority permission to speak on behalf of all humanity,” he insisted. Nor did it seem that Russia could rise with the global voice, from what was heard in the session.
He closed his intervention by appealing to the journalists who were covering the event to denounce that the US denied entry visas to informants who were going to travel from Russia. Thomas-Greenfield did not enter the case, although he recalled American citizens and Russian dissidents locked up in Russia, deprived of their liberty in “penal colonies.”
