The United States and NATO masters of the double standard

Speech by Vassily Nebenzia, Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN

At the October 10 meeting, Russia has already provided clarification of the reasons that led to the referendums in the Donetsk and Luhansk republics, as well as in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions.

The final results of the vote were announced on September 28. The vast majority of those who voted in the referendums supported joining their respective regions to Russia: 99% in the DPR, 98% in the LPR, 93% in the Zaporozhye region, 87% in the Kherson region.

Despite the complicated security situation and the provocations of the kyiv regime, the overwhelming majority of voters decided to vote – from 76% in the Kherson region to 97% in the DPR. The results of the vote are explicit: the population of these regions does not want to return to Ukraine and has made a free and conscious choice in favor of Russia.

The referendums took place in full respect of the norms and principles of international law, regardless of our Western adversaries or even the Secretary-General (who suddenly decided to speak on behalf of the entire United Nations in the absence of such a mandate) attempt to prove the contrary.

More than 100 international observers from Germany, Italy, Venezuela, Latvia and other states, who monitored the vote, also agreed that the results were legitimate.

The proclaimed commitment to safeguarding international law that we heard today from the representatives of the United States and NATO states was a clear manifestation of hypocrisy and double standards. Rather indicatively, they even refrained from mentioning their favorite invention, the “rules-based order” for a while.

Let’s come to the case of Kosovo. The most vocal critics of the referendums were among the first to support Kosovo’s independence. They insisted that Kosovo had the right to corrective secession.

This was the West’s official legal position, which they expressed in written submissions to the International Court of Justice, as it was preparing an advisory opinion at the request of the General Assembly in 2008, although at that time There, the Kosovo Albanians had not long been exposed to any threat.

Yugoslavia no longer existed, and in Serbia devastated by the NATO countries, foreign contingents were deployed in place of blue helmets. No referendum was deemed necessary in Kosovo – only a unilateral declaration of independence, adopted ultra vires by a provisional body of self-government.

But it was enough for the West to recognize Kosovo’s independence.

They said that international law did not prohibit declaring independence. What are they saying today? They say Kosovo is different. NATO was therefore ready to save the Kosovo Albanians from threats that did not exist at that time. But when it comes to the inhabitants of Donbass, Kherson and Zaporozhye, these are considered “second-class” people, who see the extermination by the kyiv regime does not concern the civilized West, because these regions dare to support Russia.

The draft resolution before us today is riddled with those ugly double standards that the West dares to impose.

We have never seen our Western colleagues pay so much attention to other statements by the Secretary-General, where he calls for the resolution of conflicts in other parts of the globe (i.e. those triggered by Western countries ), where women and children die and economies collapse. In particular, they ignore the SG’s call to refrain from unlawful unilateral economic sanctions. The West remains completely deaf to the problems of the “Global South” and calls for their resolution, but at the same time pulls all the strings to propel the story around Ukraine – not for Ukraine’s prosperity, but rather to try to hurt Russia.

The resolution provides some selective quotations from the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States of 1970, but does not say a word about the right to self-determination which paved the way for decolonization through which many of those who are here today have had the opportunity to serve in the General Assembly. Today, we try to make you forget that the West came up against this process, while the Soviet Union facilitated it.

In recent days we have seen the West, driven by neo-colonial instincts, launch an unprecedented campaign of blackmail and large-scale weapon manipulation against developing states in order to get them to support the project of anti-Russian resolution.

The campaign took place in Washington. At the same time, teams of political emissaries from the United States and its allies literally besieged the capitals of the states of the non-aligned movement and threatened them with reprisals for “disobedience”.

This story even made it to mainstream Western media. “Politico” quoted some State Department sources, which clearly demonstrated the true attitude of Washington and other Western countries to the voices of developing states.

According to them, when it comes to voting on an anti-Russian draft resolution at the GA, “every Fiji matters, every Palau matters.” How do the representatives of Fiji and Palau like such words, I wonder? These are classic methods that slave owners and colonizers would employ, accustomed to seeing the world through the prism of colonialism.

I will tell you frankly that in recent days we have been approached by quite a few colleagues representing the “global South”, who have said that they have been the object of economic blackmail and direct threats from the Americans and Europeans. It is therefore clear that whatever the outcome of the vote, we will have to consider it bearing in mind this unprecedented Western blackmail campaign in the General Assembly. There is and there can be no place for such methods in the United Nations.

Today we are gathered for a truly historic meeting. Here and now, the United States and its satellites are giving us a lesson in “de-overeignization”.

We regret that the corrupt Western blackmailers who have tried to snatch votes from developing states have been joined by the President of the General Assembly, whose procedural ploy, on October 10, the first day of the resumed session extraordinary, not only deprived member states of the ability to vote by secret ballot without coercion, but also gave blackmailers more time for their manipulations. I hope that despite all of this, there will be enough delegations in this room who are prepared to oppose Western dictation and vote independently, unafraid of the eye of ‘Big Brother’.

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