“U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia on Thursday of using food as a weapon in Ukraine by holding ‘hostage’ supplies for not just Ukrainians, but also millions around the world. A [Russian] senior official … rejected the allegations, saying Russians … would not export food while being subject to tough sanctions. Addressing the United Nations Security Council, Blinken […]
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“… U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres released … [a U.N. task force] report saying that … [Russia’s war on Ukraine] is ‘supercharging’ a crisis in food, energy and finance in poorer countries … already struggling to deal with … COVID-19 …, climate change and a lack of access to adequate funding for economic recovery. ‘We are now facing a perfect storm […]
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We ask experts whether the Kremlin’s latest moves on climate, including its 2060 net-zero target, heralds genuine change or more greenwash […]
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Russia can expect to see intensifying wildfires, floods and other extreme weather events in the coming decades as the global climate crisis deepens a decade sooner than projected […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Oct. 14, 2020) Russia has been re-elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) following a four-year absence, Moscow’s mission to the UN in Geneva announced Wednesday. Comprising 47 member states elected by the General Assembly for a three-year term, the HRC is responsible for addressing human rights violations and promoting the human rights […]
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(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – Paul Saunders – Sept. 17, 2020) Paul Saunders is a senior fellow in U.S. foreign policy at the Center for the National Interest. With military tension among great powers increasing in east Asia, central Europe and the Middle East, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and others have proposed a summit of the U.N. Security Council’s five […]
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“… Putin … proposed holding a summit between the leaders of Russia, China, the United States, France and Britain in 2020 to discuss the conflict in Libya and other global problems. Putin, … speaking during a trip to Israel, said Moscow was ready for a “serious conversation” with the permanent members of the UN Security Council, that there was much […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – March 20, 2019) It’s not all smiles for Russia as it slips down the global happiness rankings for a third consecutive year, according to an annual UN report published on Wednesday. The World Happiness Report ranks 156 countries by variables that support well-being, including GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, social freedom, generosity […]
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“… some 13,000 North Korean workers [were] left in Russia by October …. Some Western diplomats view Moscow’s implementation of … sanctions as overly liberal. … allowing [Pyongyang] to continue earning foreign currency and sourcing vital supplies in Russia and undermining U.S. attempts to strong-arm the country into giving up [WMD]. … Russian customs data show North Korea imported about […]
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“The Trump administration worked to move ahead on its top diplomatic priority – the denuclearization of North Korea – but ran head-on into opposition to its plans from Russia, which called for the easing of United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang. The proposal by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the U.N. Security Council ran directly counter to the U.S. demand […]
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MOSCOW. April 5 (Interfax) – Russia will insist that the United Nations adopt an international convention to lay down rules of conduct on the Internet and deal with the illegal blocking of online resources, Russian Communications and Mass Media Minister Nikolai Nikiforov said on Thursday. “Our foreign colleagues, above all American, continue to exhibit their customary practice of double standards. […]
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MOSCOW. Sept 5 (Interfax) – Donbas already has the conditions allowing, with Kyiv’s good will, for an introduction of UN peacekeepers there, Boris Gryzlov, Russia’s representative in the Contact Group on Ukraine, said on Tuesday. “For a possible introduction of the UN contingent to support and maintain the security of the OSCE [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] mission […]
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“The biggest fresh water lake in the world is under attack … again … this time from Mongolian power companies with help from the World Bank looking to build two hydroelectric dams that draw from an important Russian river. … the World Bank held public hearings in Russia to discuss environmental impact studies around Lake Baikal in Russia, moving two mid-sized […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – March 20, 2017) Don’t be misled by those grumpy faces on the Moscow metro: Russia is the 49th happiest place on Earth and it is becoming happier, a new study has found. The United Nation’s yearly World Happiness Report measures “subjective well-being” in 155 countries along criteria such as GDP per capita and life expectancy, […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – February 21, 2017) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has published a poem dedicated to his country’s late permanent representative to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin. Churkin died unexpectedly yesterday in New York, reportedly from heart problems, just a day shy of his 65th birthday. Since then, many politicians and diplomats have paid their respects to […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Brian Whitmore – February 10, 2017) Ten years ago today, a cold wind blew in Munich. A decade ago today, Vladimir Putin telegraphed his intentions. On February 10, 2007, the Kremlin leader threw down the gauntlet to the West. On that day, Putin stunned the Munich Security Conference with a bellicose speech in which he railed […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Kambiz Foroohar – January 31, 2017) President Donald #Trump’s outreach to #Russia is reverberating through the United Nations, where U.S. allies worry that a partnership between Washington and Moscow could undermine a historic balance of power dating to the early days of the Cold War. For decades, the five veto-wielding members of the 15-nation Security Council […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Ragozin – February 18, 2016) Two years have passed since a popular uprising in Kiev toppled a Russia-backed regime in Ukraine. The glory of that people power moment has faded, and Western supporters are losing patience with the government as corruption hampers efforts to jump-start the economy. The gross domestic product of the war-plagued country […]
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On Dec. 18 in New York, members of the International Syria Support Group agreed on the principles of reaching a political settlement to the crisis in Syria. Later, after five hours of discussions, the group’s decisions on Syria were unanimously adopted by the UN Security Council. But what questions are still hindering progress? (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – […]
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(Kremlin.ru – December 14, 2015) Vladimir Putin spoke at the plenary session of the IV St Petersburg International Cultural Forum. The IV St Petersburg International Cultural Forum is taking place on December 14-16, 2015. Every year the forum brings together experts in culture, politicians, representatives of state bodies and business people, and this year’s event is dedicated to the 70th […]
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(Kremlin.ru – December 9, 2015) Vladimir Putin held a meeting of the Mariinsky Theatre Board of Trustees. Items on the agenda included establishing a branch of the Mariinsky Theatre in Primorye Territory, using the Primorye Opera and Ballet Theatre as a base, and other projects the theatre is involved in, in particular, organisation of the Moscow Easter Festival, which will […]
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The AP covers the WHO’s reaction to public health issues in war-torn Ukraine. The World Health Organization is urging Ukraine’s health ministry to declare a state of emergency due to a polio outbreak … In September, Ukraine announced two polio cases — the first in Europe since 2010. * * * Half of Ukraine’s children have not been vaccinated against […]
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(United Nations – UN News Centre- un.org – November 9, 2015) [Reprinted with the permission of the United Nations.] The United Nations refugee agency has managed to deliver aid for the first time in over two months to areas of eastern Ukraine beyond Government control where two million people are in urgent need of assistance, reaching 12,000 people – a […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 14 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin informed U.S. President Barack Obama of plans to strike Islamic State targets in Syria during their recent meeting on the sidelines of a UN General Assembly session in New York, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday. “When we were ready, after the Federation Council’s decision, to start striking ISIL […]
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(Interfax – September 18, 2015) At least 8,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the hostilities in eastern Ukraine, Christof Heyns, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary execution, has said. Eight thousand people have died, and according to the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission, most of them have been civilians. Artillery shelling incidents are observed on both sides, […]
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MOSCOW. Sept 13 (Interfax) – The obsession of the West with sanctions and not only with regard to Russia will become one of the subjects of the speech of President Vladimir Putin at the jubilee session of the UN General Assembly in New York, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has announced. “We assume that Putin will express our principled evaluations […]
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After 14 years, Moscow is renewing an effort to claim a vast territory on the outer margin of the continental shelf abutting Russia’s land mass in the Arctic. What are the economic benefits of acquiring the legal rights to this underwater area and is Russia’s claim likely to be approved? (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Alexei Lossan, RBTH […]
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Russian scientists say their new model for the Arctic’s tectonic evolution shows that the underwater Lomonosov and Mendeleev Ridges are part of the Eurasian mainland. This apparently substantiates Russia’s claim to 1.2 million square kilometers of Arctic sea shelf. At stake is control over vast natural resources, and opposition from western nations is almost certain. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Brian Whitmore – August 10, 2015) Are little green men about to appear on the North Pole? Russia’s claim last week, using an extremely creative interpretation of international law, to exclusive economic rights to nearly half a million square miles of the Arctic Sea, was certainly a head scratcher. Sure the territory is valuable due to […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Henry Kirby in London – August 5, 2015) [Charts here bne.eu/content/story/bnechart-half-russians-favour-mh17-tribunal] Nearly half of all Russians would support the creation of a UN international tribunal to investigate who was responsible for last year’s MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine, according to a poll by Russia’s Levada Centre. This is in stark contrast to the clear […]
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(Ukraine United States Mission to the United Nations – Remarks at the October Palace in Kyiv, Ukraine – Samantha Power, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Kyiv, – June 11, 2015) AS DELIVERED Dobry den. Thank you all so much for being here. As Tamila said, I represent the United States at the United Nations. The United Nations Security Council, the body whose job […]
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(Interfax – February 18, 2015) The United Nations Security Council unanimously backed a resolution supporting the Minsk deal for Ukraine on Tuesday. The resolution was proposed by Russia. It said, for instance, that every warring side in Ukraine should fully implement the Minsk agreements. The UN Security Council members expressed concern about the hostilities in eastern Ukraine and declared the […]
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(UN News Centre – un.org – Dec. 31, 2014) Amid continuing fighting and a deteriorating humanitarian situation in Ukraine, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today announced it is launching an initiative aimed at ferrying aid to the country’s internally displaced persons (IDPs), as well as other vulnerable citizens trapped by the ongoing hostilities. The latest figures from the UN human rights office, OHCHR, […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, November 25, 2014) The leadership of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic [DPR] has suggested that a mixed Russian-European peacekeeping contingent should be sent to eastern Ukraine. “We urge the United Nations to send a mixed peacekeeping contingent including Russian and European peacekeepers,” the deputy speaker of the supreme council of the DPR, Denys Pushylin [Denis Pushilin], told […]
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MOSCOW, October 17 (RIA Novosti) -The reason behind the tragedy in Eastern Ukraine is that the local population rejected the ultranationalist stand of the new Ukrainian government, which responded with a punitive operation against its own citizens, the Russian envoy to the United Nations said at a security conference in Switzerland. “The reason behind the current tragedy is the unacceptable […]
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GENEVA, October 8 (RIA Novosti) – UN observers need access to mass graves discovered near the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, a senior official with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said Wednesday. Gianni Magazzeni, chief of the OHCHR Americas Europe and Central Asia Branch, told reporters that any reported violation of human rights needs […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – August 1, 2014) The United Nations has not received any hard evidence that Russia supplied pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine with weapons, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said Thursday. “We were unable to get hard evidence of the supply of weapons,” Pillay said in comments carried by ITAR-Tass. Washington and Kiev have […]
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MOSCOW. April 7 (Interfax) – Russian peacekeepers can be sent to a foreign country exclusively within the framework of international law, not at the request of local authorities, Chairman of the Federation Council’s Defense and Security Committee Viktor Ozerov told Interfax while commenting on the Donetsk People’s Council’s possible appeal to Russia to send peacekeepers to this part of Ukraine. […]
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(RIA Novosti – September 25, 2013) Several Russian experts interviewed by state news agency RIA Novosti have said that they believe that the statements made by Iranian President Hasan Ruhani in New York that his country is ready to start effective talks on the nuclear programme, as well as his recognition of the Holocaust as a historical fact show that […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Andrew McChesney September 26, 2013) [Video of speech here http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/russias-un-delegation-walks-out-during-saakashvilis-crazy-speech/486649.html] Outgoing Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili assailed Russia as “the last authoritarian empire in the world” during a speech to the UN General Assembly, and predicted that President Vladimir Putin would disappear from Russian politics, prompting the Russian delegation to walk out in protest. Russia’s ambassador […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Alexander Yakovenko, special to RBTH – September 24, 2013) Alexander Yakovenko, Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom, talks on Syria. It is widely agreed that the latest proposal to put Syrian chemical weapons under international control and subsequently destroy them has drastically changed the terms of debate on the conflict. The New York […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, September 24, 2013) The United Nations Security Council may permit armed intervention in Syria only if that government refuses to fulfill obligations, such as removing chemical weapons stockpiles, a senior Russian government official said Tuesday. Washington and Moscow are expected to clash at the UN General Assembly later this week over the terms of a […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 18, 2013) Russia intends to provide the proof, provided by Damascus, that the opposition used chemical weapons in eastern Ghouta near Damascus, to the UN Security Council. “Of course, we will provide all of this to the UN Security Council,” Russian Foreign Minister told reporters following his speech at the Valdai Discussion Club. This proof has […]
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(RIA Novosti – September 17, 2013) Armed Syrian opposition could have used parts of Soviet ammunition when preparing the chemical attack in the vicinity of Damascus, editor-in-chief of the Natsionalnaya Oborona (National Defense) magazine Igor Korotchenko told RIA Novosti news agency on 17 September. The UN report confirming the use of chemical weapons in Syria, which was published on 16 […]
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(RIA Novosti – Valday, Novgorod Region, September 17, 2013) The parts of Soviet-made munitions found by UN inspectors near Damascus belong to projectiles used in multiple-launch missile systems that the Syrian army took out of service long ago and have probably been improvised to carry chemicals, the director of the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, Ruslan Pukhov, has […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yuri Paniyev, special to RBTH – September 17, 2013) Despite or perhaps because of its touchy bilateral relations with many member countries, Russia maintains that the United Nations is still relevant today. On Sept. 17, the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly was opened with a strike of a […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Vyacheslav Morozov, special to RBTH – September 18, 2013) Although Russia is involved in many other multilateral groups, the UN gives the country status and influence. Russia’s attitude towards the United Nations is defined by two key concerns: status and influence. Being a permanent member of the UN Security Council is crucial for […]
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