10 October 2022
Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at the plenary meeting of the 11th emergency special session of the UN General Assembly (the issue of Ukraine)
Colleagues,
Let me start with procedural issues.
You all have become witnesses to an outrageous fraud in which President of the General Assembly unfortunately played a key role. We were not given the floor to make a point of order (the indicator light at our seat is still on), our statement was distorted, and now UN member states are being robbed of their right to express their opinion freely. This is an unprecedented manipulation undermining the authority of the General Assembly and the United Nations as a whole. Of course, in such circumstances we opted to not take part in the vote. We express our strong protest against the blatant violation of the procedural order of the meeting. As I said, we were not given the floor. Our main point was what the Syrian colleagues actually reminded us of. We did not argue the decision of the President. The thing is that we did not make the motion that Albania then contested. So Mr.President, you deprived the Russian Federation as the author of the proposal of the opportunity to actually present it and explain its underlying logic. Our opponents did this in our place. Is this the transparency that the delegation of Albania was so eloquent about? Is this fair play? We demand that the question be presented as we requested. There is no sense taking action against what we did not introduce in the first place. I will revert to it later.
Mr.President,
Colleagues,
The General Assembly was conceived as a universal and the most inclusive platform for equal dialogue of sovereign states. This hall witnessed the adoption of many life-changing decisions that drafted the legal, socio-economic, and economic outline of the present-day global community. When elaborating those decisions, states were eager to find some common ground, arrive at a compromise, and act in the spirit of cooperation and genuine engagement.
Unfortunately, today we see a completely different narrative being promoted within these walls. In all its history, the United Nations has not seen such cynicism, confrontation, and dangerous polarization as it does today. This fact is most vividly illustrated by the convening of this politicized special session. We can say for sure that it is highly politicized, because it was specifically launched to promote narrative aimed against one concrete country – the Russian Federation.
Speaking about other aspects of the Ukrainian crisis, which had started to evolve in 2014 at the very latest (and in fact much earlier), Western states systematically downplayed those, deliberately excluding those aspects from the discussions. They do so as if the anti-constitutional Maidan coup, the tragedy in Odessa, systematic violations of the rights of Russian speaking population, aggression of the Kiev regime against Donbas, and mass murders of civilians living there – as if none of this had happened. Washington, London, Brussels, and some other capitals are trying to “stop the clock” pretending that history only started in February 2022. That is characteristic of the West – for them, any historical period begins at whatever time they find the most “convenient”.
Recently, there was a pathetic and unprecedented provocation in the Security Council, which then served as a pretext for reconvening this session. A draft document was put to vote, where we were supposed to condemn ourselves. What does it have to do with maintenance of peace and security or searching for ways to resolve the conflict? This was yet another step towards further divide and escalation, which we are sure is not what the overwhelming majority of states whose representatives are gathered in this hall would want.
Those who keep track of the discussions in the Security Council know that we were ready to approve a well-balanced and constructive draft resolution, where among other things we suggested articulating a call to look for diplomatic ways of crisis settlement. Our proposals were perceived rather positively by many our partners in the Security Council. But of course, the Western states in UNSC did not want them. As we hear from their statements, they do not want peace in Ukraine at all.
It is NATO that we are really confronted with in Ukraine. And what NATO wants is to escalate the conflict which will bring the Alliance closer to fulfilling its plan (that was years in the making) to defeat or at least weaken Russia. To be able to do this, those countries have long picked Ukraine which they completely subjugated and put under their control. So today Ukraine is used as a testing site for NATO weapons and proxy fights with Russia to be fought “until the last Ukrainian”.
Today, Western states seek to involve as many countries as they can in their geopolitical projects aimed at preserving Western dominance and sustaining the wealth of the so-called golden billion.
Coleagues,
We used to be condemned for our genuine wish to uphold the rights of people in Asia, Africa, and Latin America and protect them from colonialism and exploitation. By the same fashion, today we are criticized for protecting the rights and freedoms of our brothers and sisters in the south and east of Ukraine. In the first place – their right to life, as well as the right to speak their mother tongue and have their children educated in it, praise heroes who liberated their land from Nazis rather than those who collaborated with them and killed peaceful people. We protect those whom the current leadership in Kiev called species and inhumans, and urged to “leave for Russia for the sake of their children’s and grandchildren’s future”, and who eventually heeded this call and opted to be with Russia. This is eloquently evidenced by the choice of six million civilians made at the referenda in the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye, and Kherson regions, where the overwhelming majority of voters supported accession to Russia.
We are living in an era when millions of video reels and comments can be accessed on social media in a click, which makes it very hard to argue that the voting at the referenda was not free, legitimate and fully compliant with norms and principles of international law. More than a hundred international observers, i.a. from Western states, confirmed that. Internet users mostly share this view. According to spontaneous polls that were carried out in Twitter, most respondents believe that people in those regions should be able to decide on their own future. Some would disagree though, first of all Kiev and it Western sponsors, who have been covering up for crimes of the Maidan authorities for eight and a half years.
Those who louder than others cry out that the referenda were “illegitimate” because of the lack of consent of the Kiev regime, had a directly opposite position when submitting their statements to the International Court of Justice in support of Kosovo’s secession from Serbia. I remind that it was a secession without a referendum and only based on allegations about mass murders of peaceful Kosovo-Albanian population, which we know today were as true as the lab glass in the hands of C.Powell when he was trying to convince the Security Council that Iraq was in possession of WMDs.
What is particularly cynical about this situation is the fact that those who “wring their hands” today lamenting alleged violations of the UN Charter by Russia have disregarded it for years, trying to replace it with a “rules-based order”.
Unlike how it was with Kosovo, the rights and even the lives of people in the DPR, LPR, Kherson, and Zaporozhye regions are really exposed to a threat today. Only a clear legal status of these territories and their accession to the Russian Federation could give them protection and confidence about the future. Back in 2014, we saved the people of Crimea whom the Kiev regime unambiguously threatened with Ukrainization or a violent crackdown. That is why we took this step, even though we knew how furious it would make our opponents.
Threats by Ukrainian nationalists appear even more serious now, against the backdrop of intensified deliveries of Western weapons to the Kiev regime, which can now target the residential quarters that were previously out of reach of Ukrainian armed forces. Another essential aspect that played a role during the referenda is the fact that Kiev had started terrorizing civilians after labelling them as collaborators. Kiev’s fighters openly admit to it when speaking to Western media. They brag to be “shooting Russian collaborators like pigs”. And this is far not a metaphor, as we can see from a video reel posted by a Ukrainian neo-Nazi, ex-commander of the Azov battalion M.Zhoryn. This video features civilians from Kupiansk being shot and their bodies ditched.
Have you heard about a strike by Ukrainian armed forces against a line of people who were heading to Russia-controlled territories of the Zaporozhye region? Ukrainian “info-liers” who were acting in the best traditions of Dr.Goebbels, immediately attributed them to Russia, same as the strikes against the Zaporozhye NPP and the city of Enerhodar.
Ukrainian Nazis have a lengthy record of deadly provocations that started back in April in Bucha, Irpen, and other areas where Russian forces had withdrawn from as a gesture of good will. Yet the people of Donbas, Kherson, and Zaporozhye know too well who really stood behind the killings of people in southern and eastern Ukraine. Hence an explicit choice in favor of a future within Russia – a choice that we intend to respect. And we call on you to follow suit.
Colleagues,
We call the international community to pay attention not only to the criminal acts that I mentioned, but also to the irresponsible steps and claims of the Kiev regime that seek to involve NATO countries in hostilities against Russia. I mean the reckless calls of V.Zelensky to launch preventive nuclear strikes against Russia. It is clear that in doing so Kiev hopes to evade a defeat on the battlefield (which is otherwise imminent) and accountability for all its crimes. However those calls are fraught with unleashing the third world war and a nuclear disaster. The sabotage on the Crimean bridge is a clear illustration of what Kiev is capable of. We have warned that this and other steps of such kind will not be left unretaliated. By carrying out such sabotage, by terrorizing and killing the unwanted officials and political activists, the Kiev regime positions itself alongside most ignominious international terrorist organizations. Only Kiev and its Western sponsors that keep pushing the regime towards a war “until the last Ukrainian” instead of a peaceful settlement bear the responsibility for our forced retaliatory measures.
Colleagues,
Let me stress again that Russia observes the Charter of the United Nations and respects the principles stipulated therein, including the principle of territorial integrity of states. However this cannot be considered in detachment from other principles of the international law, first of all the right of peoples to self-determination. The Declaration on the Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations that the General Assembly adopted in 1970 and that the sponsors of today’s draft refer to (though citing it selectively, as they usually do) provides a clear explanation of this matter. It prescribes that the principle of territorial integrity must be observed with regard to the states that respect in their policies the principle of equality and self-determination of peoples and therefore have governments representing the entire people living on their territory.
The Kiev regime forfeited this legitimacy in terms of its Russian-speaking population back in 2014, after the unconstitutional Maidan coup. Over the past 8 years we have provided thousands pieces of evidence of the violent crimes committed by Kiev against its own people; infringement and direct violation of the rights of Russian speakers that constituted at least 40% of the entire population of Ukraine; and attempted forced Ukrainization of those people.
Those facts do not fit into the unilateral Western narrative that is so convenient to them and that they try to impose on you, while at the same time twisting the arms of those who dare to have an own divergent opinion. Those who were able to withstand this unprecedented pressure were able to prove that they do have an independent opinion and implement independent policies. Those are countries that uphold the crucial principle of sovereign equality of member states and who talk to others like their equals and not like dependents. This special session demonstrated that our Western opponents fear that the number of such states will grow, and so they are ready to take any steps to preclude this from happening.
Mr.President,
Since you did not let us do it in due course, when we asked for that, we request that our proposal to suspend the whole Rule 87, including its para. B, be put to vote now.
Thank you.
That the whole world’s against Russia meme, the last refuge of American/West’s skulduggery, is no more.
Seems that every major speech emanates from a Russian these days, on the world stage as well as domestically.
MSM is becoming increasingly irrelevant, losing its mojo. unable to win hearts & minds, for all the western regime’s investment therein. What works for them also works against them, and even though the feckless bastards have seen fit to sanction, defund, excommunicate, rational free minds, then, a few ‘moderate’ platforms are slowly but surely seeing traffic. There’s no better recruitment/marketing than recommendation from a friend. Hence the ineffectiveness of Big Brother’s reach. Folks are beginning to see through the American Gangster Government & their vassal deadbeats with their rainbow-coloured web of lies and concertinaed shit-splatter.
“MSM is becoming increasingly irrelevant”
Unfortunately that just isn’t so. The majority of people still consume MSM, and will do so for a long time. Because the majority of people don’t look for alternatives, and they don’t look because they can’t be bothered to look deeper. MSM is fast food, mindless entertainment, effortless. Effort is just too big an obstacle for most. That is the reality.
Slowly but surely takes forever and I hardly have any friends left to recommend things too. I am not alone in that. The friends I have left I don’t need to recommend things to, so essentially that puts both sides inside their own echo chamber. Another reality. Not just mine.
The view of the majority will only change when that change of view has gained a majority. When they are told that this view is acceptable now, or when it becomes too embarrassing a view to hold on to.
“MSM is becoming increasingly irrelevant”
It’s in real time now. What once was the old news stalwart of western civilization is a hollow core. Filled with scandal after scandal, one lie after another, and one lawsuit after another plastered over their rating sheets. You can be sure other “mom and pop” news sources take notice of their competition’s 90% drop and imminent demise.
Personally, I think those numbers are still a little high. Using little effort to arrive at them.
https://nypost.com/2022/01/12/cnn-sees-ratings-dive-by-90-from-2021-coverage/
Social Networks took the lead in manipulating public opinion. They are much more effective than Bad Old MSM.
World still do not recognize toxicity of AI assisted PR campaigns. Even if they caused hundreds of thousands of casualties, similar to nuclear bombs.
Brainwashing should be considered a weapon of mass destruction, and dealt accordingly.
Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia Is correct in everything he explains here. The UN needs to be done away with or modified to where every nation gets the same rights always.
Who was it that donated the land where the UN headquarters stands? I believe that should be enough to inform people as to the identity of who it is that the United Nations serves. Always has. It is a globalist-Zionist cabal’s playground.The Rockefeller Trust played a large part in toppling the Romanov dynasty because of the Czar’s refusal to grant them anymore oil leases in Baku. And now they are coming for Russia again. For awhile, they had their stooge Yeltsin in power draining the wealth of the nations resources, then along came Putin and poured cement into the gears! They hate him for it, and they hate the common Russian for not going along with their global homo agenda Remember ten years ago the Olympic governing committee threw a big hissy fit over Russia’s refusal to submit to their programs {homosexual} and made all kinds of empty threats about moving the site from Moscow, but it was already too late-hahaha! They already had too much time and money invested to pull out now, and the opening day of events was just weeks away. So they invented lies about unsanitary water and conditions, bullying security guards and the like to smear Russia and Putin. Don’t expect any neutrality from ANY of these global institutions, they all serve the cabal. Russia, Iran, China, Belarus, Serbia and others are never going to be given a fair shake in any of their plans.
The statement above might have been penned by the good folk here at the Saker blog.
Or Andrei at least (with full support).
I was a little confused by the beginning, so I did some digging.
Apparantly Albania preempted the Russian delegate’s call for a secret ballot regarding Ukraine’s introduced “Territorial integrity of Ukraine: defending the principles of the Charter of the United Nations” referenda. Russia’s point being, “There is no sense taking action against what we did not introduce in the first place.” That was actually funny because the logic of his argument/statement is indisputable.
I found his conclusion to be very compelling. People must be allowed the right of self determination. That is how we grow as young children into responsible adults. We decide what our future will be; we decide what our moral compass will be; we decide who we should be. Should not that right be extended to the four annexed areas which have labored under assaults of their personal rights and that of personal survival since 2014? When a nation obrogates its “principle of territorial integrity” (very eloquently stated)…who are we to say that what the people want is incorrect or they do not deserve the support of others.
As far as I’m concerned Ukraine is guilty of genocide of its own people, simply because the people want and have chosen a different path since 2014. Those nations who have collaborated with NATO out of greed, power, or even fear of US retribution are now guilty of genocide also. Their very actions through sanctions are going to cause global world famine, poverty, and death to many as gas, food, fertilizer, (etc), and global supply chains break down even further. It’s actually ironic that through their actions they will cause a great humanitarian crisis in their resolve to establish a New World Order. Think of the principle of territorial integrity. If genocide of the world’s population is their goal, they too fail as Ukraine has failed, by not allowing countries and peoples of those countries the right to self determination. They are not fit to make choices for me or any others.
When the West runs out of Ukrainians the Poles are next. The West has primed them but they have also primed themselves, in fact they are dying in Ukraine already. I guess there was always something behind all the Polish jokes about Poles being stupid.
The UN has become so irrelevant. It has turned into an arena where western Anglo-Zionist establishment exercise arm twisting, bribing techniques on more than 80 percent of the world’s smaller/weaker nations. If they refuse to go along with the dollar system, they will have their bank accounts frozen, both the nation’s and diplomats’ personal savings accounts. No wonder why tiny Albania is forced to do whatever it is being told to do at the UN general assembly. Now it is the best time to establish a new parallel UN with its headquarter in let’s say Damascus – Syria, beginning with Russia, Iran, Syria and joined later by rest of the Eurasians and zone B countries. Why Damascus, because this is the oldest continuous capital in the history of civilization that has come under attack by the Anglo-Zionist band.
excellent idea….UN…in the oldest continuous capital in the history in the world……
Mr Nebenzia must be one of the most patient and decent people in all the world. I remember him in 2018 throughout the whole Skripal saga of lies, with the UK rep to the UN and so many others managing to convince the usual Western puppets like Boris Johnson that somehow Russia, as always, was culpable. The football World Cup was a great success but of course nobody was allowed to praise Russia’s splendid organisation of it.
Here we see that the West with less than 15% of the world’s population wants to destroy the UN as an organisation of sovereign states. Might is right, they decide, and show their “might” by piling all the weapons they deem useful into the corrupt “nation” of Ukraine just so that they can defeat and destroy Russia, as they attempted to do and nearly succeeded in the 1990s. There is no justification for the USA and NATO to interfere in country 404, which with NATO nuke bases is an existential threat to Russia. They are in no danger from Russian “aggression”. All the aggression comes from them. With help from most of the world’s nations, a fair world order can be established.
Yes. He could be Lavrov’s replacement when the time comes.
Should I suppose that the NYT and rest of the western media shall now exclaim “Oh, we didn’t know this. We must write the stories explaining it to the people”?
It doesn’t really matter” the truth and the stories will converge as reality progresses and overwhelms the fascist gangsters and their enthralled people. The empire’s collapse is happening even now.
I needed to look it up:
https://www.un.org/en/ga/about/ropga/plenary.shtml
Rule 87 PDF
(a) The General Assembly shall normally vote by show of hands or by standing, but any representative may request a roll-call. The roll-call shall be taken in the English alphabetical order of the names of the members, beginning with the member whose name is drawn by lot by the President. The name of each member shall be called in any roll-call, and one of its representatives shall reply “yes”, “no” or “abstention”. The result of the voting shall be inserted in the record in the English alphabetical order of the names of the members.
(b) When the General Assembly votes by mechanical means, a non-recorded vote shall replace a vote by show of hands or by standing and a recorded vote shall replace a roll-call vote. Any representative may request a recorded vote. In the case of a recorded vote, the General Assembly shall, unless a representative requests otherwise, dispense with the procedure of calling out the names of the members; nevertheless, the result of the voting shall be inserted in the record in the same manner as that of a roll-call vote.
[See introduction, para. 28 PDF]
More useless waffle. First, most of the western delegates at the UN are not ‘colleagues’, they’re enemies. Second, Russia wanting a fair hearing at the UN is like asking wolves to decide which sheep they want for lunch.
Secondly, Nebenzia is complaining he didn’t get a fair hearing? And he’s surprised? Remeber Lavrov and the years he spent banging his head against a wall?
Nebenzia would have been better off saving time and effort and walking out, but first reminding them Russia is a nuclear power and not mentally ill Greata Thunberg they were previously cheering for. What significance does his statement have? The time for diplomacy has long since passed.
He was talking at a plenary meeting of General Assembly, which included all the countries of the world, most of whom were open to listening, and to whom he was directing his remarks.
He wasn’t addressing anyone listening, he wasn’t allowed to, that’s what he was complaining about. These speeches are a waste of time. Do you really think the west bothers what Russian diplomats and politicians say anymore?
Article says “Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at the plenary meeting” and he was not given the floor to make a point of order, but was able to speak at some other time.
It’s doesn’t matter what the west listens to or not; he wasn’t speaking to the west. His target audience was the rest of the world, the majority of people, who could listen, or read what he said (like we did). His speech is available to anyone on the internet now. One can often say or write things ostensibly directed to someone but intended to be for others. I’ve used this trolls in the past, who I never expected to respond or even read what I said, but my message and information I gave was read by many others who followed the exchange — the real target audience. Any time one hears a politician one should consider who the actual targets are, and how what he says will catch the notice of which targets.
You can write and say whatever you like, but if those concerned aren’t listening you’re wasting you time. How many years have these warnings been given? How many speeches have Putin and Lavrov made between them? Russia finally had to intervene because the west wasn’t listening.
Sit back and spend 30 informative minutes watching and listening to a fascinating account of reality. This is what’s happening and about time too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V1mnXNczHI
Half-decent video, but nothing new to me. I would not say that the rest of the world — those against western imperialism, or even those still on the fence — are not concerned. There are huge geopolitical and economics shifts in progress, and I’m always glad to hear what Russia, and their diplomatic experts have to say. I took the multiple times he addressed his remarks to ‘colleagues’ — people in the field of equal rank, and neither structural leaders nor those who arrogantly think themselves above others — and then followed up on this idea by opening with “The General Assembly was conceived as a universal and the most inclusive platform for equal dialogue of sovereign states.”, encouraging nations to resist the hegemony and unfairness of colonial forces. That resistance is in play now, growing, and is effective, as we can see by the shifts in both economic and political areas, as well as panicked reactions of the US empire. I think his speech was very well put, and effective in enhancing the awareness and courage of the other nations’ resistance, including the bias and maniplation of the UN from the empire, and yes, this has been happening for years now. I think that the Russian diplomats and foreign policy leaders are quite skilled and know exactly what they are doing.
To follow up on this idea, consider the strategy of ‘staking out, or configuring, the territory. Scott Ritter talked about this terms of current military operations, but it is a general principle, along with playing the ‘long game’ which Russia understands (including with hypermodern chess, BTW).
Yes, it was used in establishing the caldrons in the earlier years of the conflict with Donbass, but also in the Minsk agreements. It’s been reported that Ukraine and NATO signed Minsk to gain time to build up forces, but Russia did the same thing, knowing it was limited then in their ability to face NATO. More than that, Russian leaders did not expect Minsk agreement to be honored — they knew the history of the US and NATO in honoring agreements. Russia also initially rejected the independence for Donbas, and yaking it on as part of Russia, But it set the stage politically for further action when the time was ripe, politically and militarily.
When Putin asked for an European securty statement and arrangement, in writing, he did not expect NATO to respond, and was hardly surprised when the request was ignored. But it established the Russian position that peace and security throughout the whole area was what what Russia wanted, and the rest of the world saw that. The proposal carved out and configured the territory and set parameters for the coming conflict and long game, politically and legally, while the US ignioring of it also defined them to the rest of the world.
All of these things — the position and words from Russia — frame the world’s opinions of the situation as they see the US and NATO continually rejecting peaceful and fair paths and negotiations. It demonstrates that the US is not ‘agreement capable’ — competent. At this point Russia has taken on four new areas and some six million people who stringly support Russia, and significantly reconfigured the ‘playing field’ to the advantage of those opposing the empire. This speech is also reconfiguring the UN and other world organizations to wrest control of them by the fascists and make them more fair — or replace them. They are configuring another political caldron, trapping the incompetent imperialist forces in which, like the early military caldrons of the conflict, the enemy must at some point either surrender or be destroyed.
Well they don’t, and that’s why they are staring down into the barrel of a gun.
In Vietnam, the United States destroyed the villages to ‘save’ them from Communism; in Ukraine they want to destroy human life on earth to ‘save’ it from peace.
” Only a clear legal status of these territories and their accession to the Russian Federation could give them protection and confidence about the future.”
To me, that is the heart of his statement and also the heart of the Russian SMO-now-joint-force-CTO in Novorossiya, Malorossiya, and the borderlands.
Possibly of use/interest, a listing by me of ur-principles of foreign policy, aka diplomacy in a nutshell: https://therevdavidrgraham.substack.com/p/ur-principles-of-foreign-policy
When the multipolar world order finally becomes a reality, Russia should be given the laurel. The fence-sitting of India and the sometimes ambiguity of China are not reassuring.