Russia takes advantage of UNSC presidency

In April 2023, Russia took the rotating presidency position on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Russia’s tenure has already been bad for the council, but the worst is yet to come.

Photo by Bernd 📷 Dittrich on Unsplash

In the beginning of April 2023, Russia took the rotating presidency position on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Russia’s tenure in this position has already been bad for the council, but the worst is yet to come. In the UNSC, Russia has rendered the West helpless by putting them in a comprising position and at present the West cannot (or will not)  do anything to change the situation.

            Since Russia attacked neighboring Ukraine and then blocked UN action to stop the war, there had been a lot of talking about kicking Russia out of the security council. But not only has that not happened, Russia has increased its standing in the UN. Exactly one year after President Zelensky called for the UN to remove Russia or dissolve the UN completely, Russia has become the presidential nation of the security council and has already organized what was basically a propaganda meeting with a wanted war criminal as a guest speaker.

            At an April 5, 2023, security council meeting about Russia kidnapping Ukrainian children, Russia showed a lengthy propaganda video which claimed it was saving children from the warzone. Then Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova addressed the council in a long speech. Like Putin, Lvova-Belova has been charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court for her role in kidnapping Ukrainian children.

As expected, Western UN members expressed their outrage on twitter, by making public statements, and by not allowing a public broadcast of her speech. Several members even walked out of the meeting room while she was speaking. But these attempts at saving-face have been the best opposition Western delegates have been able to manage.

Lvova-Belova’s speech, the video of which is widely available online, is a clear signal of Russia’s leading (and not catching up) role in the international arena. And since Russia is playing a long game, this show of power is vital. To gain partners among non-democratic countries, Russia is out to prove they can do anything they want, whether the West likes it or not, and the UNSC is turning out to be the perfect proving ground.

In addition to events concerning the Russia-Ukraine war, the UNSC still has other world-conflict issues to address which require the whole council’s participation, and now Western delegates find themselves having to choose between two bad options. The first option is to work with Russia on those issues, but in doing so, they have to cooperate with Russia’s leadership. The other option is to sabotage Russia’s leadership by not cooperating. Doing this, however, would alienate other countries whose problems are currently with the security council. One example is the crises in Haiti, a pressing issue that the UNSC should respond to immediately.

On one side, the US has called other Western countries to still try and be productive , but the council’s work is clearly being hindered. Not only is Russia intentionally slowing things down, Western organizations and experts are not answering Russia’s call to participate in the meetings. “Not many non-Security Council members ask to attend meetings this month, and there are not many speakers agreeing to speak,” commented a UN Security Council staff member. “So little gets done, and we have significantly more free time now.”

Meanwhile, the Russian delegation is using the meetings to publicize their own agenda. At the meeting on arms control violations, they mentioned Ukraine was selling Western weapons to criminal and terrorist groups, and according to Russian propaganda, the delegates also plan to raise the issue of the assassination of a Russian propagandist. They also benefit by accusing the West of playing politics instead of helping countries that are waiting for UNSC decisions.

So far, in the first half of April, Russia managed to fully achieve its goals, but more ambitious aspirations are planned for the second half, when Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov plans to chair the UNSC meetings in New York himself. And here again there is not much West can do but observe.

Technically, the US could refuse to give him a visa, but that is not likely to happen. Russia is keeping a US journalist hostage, and his release is priority for Biden. At the same time, visas has been delayed for Lavrov and his delegation, a fact used by Russian propaganda to its advantage.

So if Lavrov arrives in the US, he will chair two meetings. The first is about the Middle East, a broad topic, and it is not clear what to expect. It might include an unexpected list of speakers that Russia, using its UNSC presidency privileges, could announce as late as night before the meeting, leaving other countries no time to react (like they did by inviting former commander of FARC to the meeting in Colombia last week).

Russia could also try to use this to invite Bashar Assad to speak, and that way again signal to African and Latin American dictatorships that Russia can whitewash a Syrian dictator and reintroduce him into international diplomatic circles despite all he has done—as long as he sides with Russia.

The second meeting is about effective multilateralism through the defense of the principles of the United Nations charter, which will focus on “how to build a new multipolar world order based on sovereign equality, while maintaining the global balance of power and ensuring the conditions for humanity’s steady advance.” This subject will give Lavrov a great opportunity to further Russian propaganda. This meeting could be particularly important for Russia because, according to the Russian concept of foreign policy (published they day before acquiring the UNSC presidency), the security council should be the only institution allowed to authorize sanctions, and should also include more non-Western countries.

No matter how these meetings go, they will benefit Russia. Russia has already put the West in a bad position and exploited all the UNSC rules to its advantage, and as long as the US and Europe are not ready to make any drastic changes to stop it, Russian will continue to do so.