IIn Ukraine, Moscow is waging an unprovoked war of aggression. In The Hague, Vladimir Putin faces an arrest warrant for war crimes. But at the United Nations, Russia is about to take charge of a powerful international body, the Security Council.
From Saturday, it is Russia’s turn to assume the monthly presidency of the 15-member council, in keeping with a rotation unaffected by the Ukraine war.
The last time Russia held the hammer was in February last year, when Putin announced his “special military operation” in the middle of a council session on Ukraine. Fourteen months later, tens of thousands of people, many of them civilians, have been killed, cities have been destroyed, and Putin has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for the mass abduction of Ukrainian children.
In such circumstances, putting Russia in the driving seat of a world body tasked with “maintaining international peace and security” sounds like a cruel April Fool’s joke to many, not least to the Ukrainian mission to the United Nations.
“From April 1, they are bringing the absurd to a new level,” said Sergei Kislitsia, Permanent Representative of Ukraine. “The Security Council, as designed, is paralyzed and unable to address issues of its primary responsibility, namely to prevent conflicts and then to deal with conflicts.”
The ambassador said Ukraine would stay out of the Security Council in April except in the case of “an issue of critical national security importance”. Ukraine is not a current member of the council, although it is frequently invited to speak on war-related issues.
The US, Britain and France and their backers on the council are likely to show their disapproval by downgrading their representation at Russia-hosted events throughout the month, but no member state is known to be planning any form of boycott. or any other protest.
The United States on Thursday urged Russia to “act professionally” when it takes on the role, but said there was no way to prevent Moscow from the position. The Kremlin said on Friday that Russia plans to exercise all of its rights in the council.
Diplomats at UN headquarters in New York point out that much of the council’s agenda in April, like any month, is taken up by routine briefings and reports on UN peacekeeping missions around the world.
A European diplomat said: “It is important to protect the rest of the Council’s work in other files.” “We do not want to disrupt the work the Council is doing elsewhere, because that would allow the Russian invasion to have a broader impact on issues of peace and security around the world.”
The Presidency of the Council gives the monthly incumbent the authority to organize its own sessions, and Russia plans to hold three sessions. On April 10, a briefing will be held on “Risks arising from violations of agreements regulating the export of weapons and military equipment,” in which the United States is expected to allocate its arms supplies to Ukraine and other allies. Last few years.
Later in the month, she will chair two open debates on “effective multilateralism” and the situation in the Middle East, and is expected to be chaired by her foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov.
The last time a permanent member of the council made an unprovoked invasion was the US attack on Iraq. The United States was not humiliated by repeated crushing defeats in the United Nations General Assembly of the kind Russia suffered over the past year, as some 140 of the 193 member states voted against Moscow’s positions, leaving out Belarus, Eritrea, Syria and the North. Korea is Russia’s only reliable friend.
Russia’s deputy permanent representative, Dmitry Polyansky, denied that his mission had become a pariah at the United Nations. “Of course not. We feel the West is trapped in the UN now because more countries understand our position,” Polyansky said, claiming that Western allies should soften resolutions and twist the arm to get 140 votes. “So I think the West is isolated, but not us in General Assembly.”
As for the ICC warrant for Putin’s arrest, Polyansky dismissed it as “absolutely irrelevant to any of our activities”. The last time the Russian leader traveled to the United Nations headquarters was in 2015.
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In the Security Council, the balance of diplomatic power is less clear than it is in the General Assembly. The divide among five permanent members — the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China — has become considerably more solid, with China regularly repeating Russian talking points in the council. The ten non-permanent members are elected for two-year terms by the General Assembly. Among the current batch, Mozambique, the United Arab Emirates, and Gabon have generally remained neutral about invading Ukraine.
Brazil is moving towards the neutral pole. Polyansky said that the BRICS grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa is closing in on each other and claimed that there are 20 other countries interested in belonging.
Richard Gowan, the UN director at the International Crisis Group, said that under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil has been “making an effort to engage with Russia and position itself as a potential peacemaker over Ukraine”.
“I don’t think Russia has many close allies in the Council, but a lot of Council members really want to avoid getting sucked into big power games,” said Juan. “There is a clear sense that a lot of council members would like to shift attention to crises other than Ukraine where the UN might be able to do marginally more good.”
There are no Security Council sessions on Ukraine scheduled for April, but nine members can vote to force it on the agenda, or members can hold informal sessions on the subject.
The Council’s stark impasse and paralysis in Ukraine have increased the importance of the General Assembly, but few expect it to bring any long-overdue reform of the Council’s administration, which was established by the victors of World War II.
Most likely, Kislitsia admitted, “everyone will get used to this new level of global hypocrisy.”
“It would be a disgrace,” he added. “But I think there is a great opportunity for that.”