YouSaid · the spoken record

Nebenzia

lines on the record: 5,044
first: 2017-08-02
most recent: 2023-12-30
sittings or episodes: 461
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“This continues to date, with the majority of profits from natural resources going straight into the pockets of multinational corporations in certain well- known countries and to the banks. Given the significant resource potential of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the broadening influence of illegal armed groups in conflict-affected African countries — such as Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Congo, Somalia, the Central African Republic and Mozambique — results in them gaining control over mineral deposits to obtain additional sources of financing. We note the efforts undertaken by national Governments to combat illegal armed groups in order to ensure security, stability and control over natural resources in the interests of the socioeconomic development of their own countries.”
2022-10-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9147 (2022) · source
“Natural resources are an extremely important factor for sustainable development and are often the basis of the economies of many developed and developing countries, and States have inalienable sovereignty over them. In that regard, the fight against illegal mining activities is also the prerogative and duty, first and foremost, of the Governments of the countries with such resources. It is our view that the natural resources found in African soils belong to the peoples of those countries and it is they who should be the main beneficiaries of such wealth. African countries have not yet recovered from the damage inflicted by the colonial Powers, who transformed them into one big quarry. The local population gained next to nothing, while the Western metropolises profited at their expense.”
2022-10-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9147 (2022) · source
“Mr. Nebenzia (Russian Federation) (spoke in Russian): We welcome you, Mr. Minister, as you preside over the Security Council today. We thank the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Ms. Ghada Fathi Waly; the African Union Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Mr. Bankole Adeoye; and the Regional Director for East Africa and Representative to the African Union at the Institute for Security Studies, Mr. Paul-Simon Handy, for the assessments they have shared with us. We would also like to express our gratitude to the Gabonese presidency for convening this meeting on such an important topic and greet all of the high-level representatives participating today.”
2022-10-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9147 (2022) · source
“I value your irony, Mr. President, but just to get things straight, the representative of Gazprom — whose participation in this meeting we facilitated — obviously requested the floor through us because he has a means of communication through us, and not because the Russian State is the major shareholder in Gazprom.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9144 (2022) · source
“Before we thank you, Mr. President, for the French presidency of the Security Council during the month of September, we would like to point out that during the meeting we were informed that one of our briefers, the representative of Gazprom, wanted to make a brief comment at the end of the meeting, and I believe that request was transmitted to the presidency. I ask that you grant him that request, if it is acceptable to the presidency.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9144 (2022) · source
“Lastly, before our American colleague took the floor today, we had frankly not linked the Nord Stream incident to the situation in Ukraine. Now we see that our Western colleagues perceive this act of sabotage, whoever may have committed it, as revenge of some kind for Russia’s actions in Ukraine. Well, I think that statement narrows the list of suspects and could be very helpful to us in the investigation.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9144 (2022) · source
“We just cited what he said, which is a fact, just like the other facts I cited. It is a fact that NATO’s BALTOPS exercise took place in June near the island of Bornholm. It is a fact that a former Foreign Minister of Poland, Mr. Radosław Sikorski, published the tweet that I showed Council members in which he thanked the United States for what happened to the pipeline. The opening of the Baltic pipe from Norway is a fact. It is a fact that NATO has made declarations about sabotage and the unacceptability of strikes on its countries’ infrastructure. Those are all nothing but facts. Can it be denied that the current energy crisis in Europe is objectively making American energy suppliers more competitive? Is that a conspiracy theory too? It is an economic reality, and the United States benefits from it in objective economic terms.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9144 (2022) · source
“Mr. Nebenzia (Russian Federation) (spoke in Russian): I am grateful to my United States colleague for his direct response to a direct question, which was whether he could confirm right now, in this Chamber, whether or not his country was involved in this act of sabotage. My American colleague’s response was to declare, in this Chamber, that the United States denied any involvement in the incident, and I thank him for his answer. However, in the light of his remarks, and of the statement by my British colleague, I have another question. I would like to know what they mean by Russian disinformation and conspiracy theories. We have not named anyone as responsible. There has been no investigation yet. All we have done is cite facts. The representative of the United States is not going to deny what his President said publicly, after all.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9144 (2022) · source
“I also want to stress that any international investigation of the incident can claim to be objective only if Russia is included in it. We are also believe it is essential not only for the countries in whose territorial waters the incident occurred to participate but also representatives of Germany, which has been the main recipient of Nord Stream gas. If the theory that one or another State is involved in these acts of terror is confirmed, that would make it a deliberate escalation of the conflict. I hope that everyone in this Chamber is aware of the dangerous point to which the perpetrators of this act of sabotage are leading us.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9144 (2022) · source
“Should we expect assertions that in the wake of the masochistic shelling of a power plant where we ourselves are positioned, we have begun to blow up our own pipelines? It is quite obvious to us that sabotage of that complexity and scale is beyond the abilities of ordinary terrorists. We consider the damage to the pipelines to be deliberate sabotage of a crucial facility of the Russian Federation’s energy infrastructure and an attack that could hardly have happened without the involvement of a State or State-controlled entities. We will definitely establish the identity of everyone involved in the sabotage. Those who were behind it cannot claim to be a non-party to the armed conflict or to have neutral status, which in any case Western countries violated long ago.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9144 (2022) · source
“In connection to those simple and logical questions, I would like to ask the representative of the United States if he can confirm right now, here in this Chamber, that his country had nothing to do with that sabotage. Of course, it is not our job to find and name those responsible today. The Security Council is not a judicial body and should not take on such tasks. Russia therefore endorses a comprehensive investigation to shed light on the true circumstances of the incident. We would be interested to hear the opinions and official views of our Western colleagues today. We hope that they will refrain from the meaningless Russophobic verbal gymnastics that they have been using about Ukraine’s strikes on the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9144 (2022) · source
“American suppliers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) must be celebrating the massive increase in LNG supplies to Europe, while from a political standpoint, the last thread securing the energy independence of the European Union has snapped. Thanks to the energy crisis, European production is being rapidly transferred to the United States, which is receiving top personnel, advanced technology and production resources, everything that a united Europe has been accumulating and developing for decades. The citizens of Europe have been left to face their problems alone. Across the ocean, no one cares that Europe is in for a very long, dark and cold winter.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9144 (2022) · source
“The next question is whether the destruction of Nord Stream benefits Russia. Considered from a common-sense point of view rather than one of sick fantasies about Russia’s willingness to do anything merely to frighten Europe, of course not. It makes no sense for us to destroy with our own hands a project in which we have made such a huge investment and that could bring us significant economic returns. After all, the West itself has constantly asserted that we profit from energy exports and rising energy prices. Finally, the big question is whether what happened to Nord Stream benefits the United States. Unquestionably.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9144 (2022) · source
“The disruptive consequences of the energy crisis have proved those who understood the importance of Nord Stream in ensuring stable and predictable energy supplies right. The disruptions in gas supplies caused by European and American sanctions in 2022 are already having a negative effect on European industry, profitability and competitiveness and are driving the emigration of skilled labour and the transfer of production capacities out of Europe and into the United States in particular. Energy poverty is not just back, it has rocketed to the top of the agenda of the developed as well as the developing world. A resumption of supplies, especially through long-term contracts, which Russia will continue to offer, would make it possible to stabilize the situation in manufacturing industries and avoid an energy collapse.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9144 (2022) · source
“From the beginning, Nord Stream had the status of a Project of Common Interest for the European Commission and enjoyed full political support. The gas pipeline system made a significant contribution to the diversification of natural gas supply routes, just like the Yamal-Europe and TurkStream pipelines. Their commissioning enabled Europe to gradually become less dependent on the monopoly of its gas supply transit by the Kyiv Government, which has been distinguished by its unscrupulous business practices — or theft, to put it simply. Germany’s leaders have said for years that Germany and Europe’s need for gas will only increase. In 2021, the Austrian authorities said that Nord Stream contributes to Europe’s energy security and welcomed the steps to improve the reliability of the continent’s energy supply.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9144 (2022) · source
“If we set aside the Polish, Czech and Baltic country politicians who have gone completely mad with Russophobia, then despite the off-the-charts anti-Russian hysteria in the EU, experts cannot fail to recognize the danger of such a scenario and its consequences for the European economy. There has been serious environmental damage done to the waters of the Baltic Sea and its maritime communications are threatened. Our Danish and Swedish colleagues have confirmed all of that in their letters to the Security Council. The objective significance of Nord Stream 1 and 2 and their contribution to Europe’s energy security has been repeatedly stressed by top officials of the European Union and its member States.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9144 (2022) · source
“Fact number five is the NATO statement made in connection with the incident warning of the danger of strikes against NATO infrastructure. It is as though NATO is afraid that someone will retaliate for something and take revenge on it. As the saying goes, an uneasy conscience betrays itself. As in any investigation, first and foremost, it is important to establish who benefits from the current situation or, as investigators say, who had the motive and the opportunity to commit the crime. Let us analyse this further. Does the destruction of the Nord Stream benefit European States? That can hardly be the case. They in this case become dependent on a more expensive and extremely unreliable supplier; I am referring to the host country of the United Nations Headquarters.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9144 (2022) · source
“Nord Stream’s only logic was for Putin to be able to blackmail or wage war on Eastern Europe with impunity ...”. Yesterday, apparently realizing that he had said too much, he deleted his tweet. We also cannot fail to note that Mr. Sikorski’s wife, Anne Applebaum, is a person who enjoys access to the circle of power in Washington, D.C., and a wide variety of information. Fact number four is that, at almost at the same time as the sabotage of Nord Stream took place, the Polish city of Goleniów marked the official opening of the Baltic gas pipeline from Norway. Poland has long positioned this pipeline as a salvation from the Nord Stream, even though, incidentally, the capacity of the Baltic pipe is far inferior to that of Nord Stream.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9144 (2022) · source
“I want to stress that this is open data on the geolocation of maritime and air transport, which is collected on the basis of data from transponders. In other words, the United States did not hide its presence in the area and carried out its manoeuvres in a demonstrative and deliberate manner. Fact number three is that, immediately after the incidents, the former Minister of Defence and Foreign Affairs of Poland Radek Sikorski, posted a photo of the leaked site on Twitter and openly thanked the United States for this sabotage. He wrote, “Thank you, USA.” I am now showing the Council a photo of that tweet. Under it, the Member of the European Parliament commented on his own tweet, saying, “… there’s no shortage of pipeline capacity for taking gas from Russia to Western Europe, including Germany.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9144 (2022) · source
“Fact number two is that, in June 2022, the Danish island of Bornholm, where three months later the Nord Stream incident was to take place, was the site of large-scale NATO exercises in the Baltic Sea. As the United States publication Seapower wrote, one of the main objectives for the alliance during these exercises was to test unmanned underwater vehicles for which the waters off the island were best suited. Following the conclusion of the exercises, the American landing ship USS Kearsarge did not leave the Baltic Sea and remained near the Danish island until 20 September. But the most interesting part is that, ever since the end of August, the ship’s helicopter unit began to systematically patrol the area of Bornholm island, and the flight path of the helicopters curiously coincides with the route of the gas pipelines.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9144 (2022) · source
“A preliminary investigation has been opened. Right now, let us simply take a look at the facts, side by side. Fact number one is that a few weeks before the start of the special military operation, United States President Joe Biden said, “If Russia invades, that means tanks or troops crossing the border of Ukraine again, then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.” In response to a journalist’s question about how this could be possible if Nord Stream 2 is controlled by Germany and not by the United States, President Biden replied, “I promise you, we will be able do that.” This message was then parroted by many United States officials.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9144 (2022) · source
“Mr. Nebenzia (Russian Federation) (spoke in Russian): We thank the representatives of the United Nations Secretariat and Gazprom for their briefings. We also thank Mr. Eyl-Mazzega. I will not comment on his interesting but at times not always objective briefing on what is happening on the gas market. We have a representative of Gazprom in the Chamber with us, and I think he could brief us himself if he so chooses. Russia requested today’s meeting in connection with the acts of sabotage on three lines of the Nord Stream offshore-gas pipeline system on 27 September 2022 in the exclusive economic zone of Denmark and Sweden near the Danish island of Bornholm. The Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation has already initiated criminal proceedings under the article on acts of international terrorism.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9144 (2022) · source
“Some will falter, but we hope that many will be able to withstand this pressure: those who are prepared to hold and protect their own opinion; those who are prepared to pursue an independent policy and uphold the principle of the sovereign equality of States and freedom of action; and those who oppose the hegemony of one State and its satellites that do not see other States as equal partners. We hope that the States Members of the United Nations will be able to form their own unbiased view of this emerging situation and make the right choice.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9143 (2022) · source
“The logic of the authors of this document becomes clear if we look at the non-transparent method that they have chosen to negotiate it through bilateral consultations where certain members of the Council were unable to see what their colleagues were thinking and proposing. We are all well aware of the goal of this draft and its fate. Its authors are prepared to devalue the efforts of the Council as the principal organ for the maintenance of peace and security and brazenly use this forum as a dress rehearsal before their main performance in the General Assembly. There, the West is going to use its familiar scheme to mobilize resources, exert pressure and twist the arms of all the Member States that they can reach.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9143 (2022) · source
“We propose noting the objective fact that members of the Council have different assessments of the outcome of the referendums. And who can argue with the fact that the free expression of the will of the people is an essential element of a democratic society? Perhaps those for whom, in the case of Kosovo, no referendum was necessary, can. Finally, we proposed having the draft reflect the Council’s call to all parties to intensify the search for a diplomatic solution to the conflict. Should this not be the goal of our joint efforts? It seems that our former partners from the West have once again demonstrated that, in reality, they do not want peace in Ukraine. They dream of Russia’s defeat, and, in the light of the rabid animosity of the West, they put other goals before us.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9143 (2022) · source
“We constructively proposed amendments that many of those present in the Chamber today would have supported — amendments on the fact that it is necessary to respect both the territorial integrity of all Member States and the principle of the self-determination of peoples, in accordance with the Charter and the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations of 1970; and about the fact that, pursuant to documents of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which, by the way, all Western States have signed, the security of States is indivisible, and no one State must strengthen its own security at the expense of the security of others’.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9143 (2022) · source
“The regime in Kyiv, which has put the interests of its Western sponsors above the interests of its own people, pushed these regions away from itself, and it is to blame for this outcome. The Maidan authorities seem not to have drawn any conclusions so far. Today we have witnessed yet another atrocity carried out by the Kyiv regime. The Ukrainian Nazis have fired on a column of people who were waiting for permits to enter territory under our control in Zaporizhzhya, and there have been dozens of deaths. I want to note that the Council did have the opportunity to adopt a truly balanced and useful document.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9143 (2022) · source
“Washington, which today is the loudest to criticize us and to speak of the territorial integrity of Ukraine, recently declared that they were willing to use force to protect Taiwan, which is an integral part of the People’s Republic of China. This is just another glaring example of double standards. Today treaties were signed on the accession of these new regions into the Russian Federation. After their endorsement by the Russian parliament and the signing of the presidential decrees, the will of the residents of Donbas, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson to reunite with Russia will be fulfilled. There will be no turning back, as today’s draft resolution (S/2022/720) would try to impose.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9143 (2022) · source
“The results of the referendum speak for themselves. The residents of these regions do not want to return to Ukraine. They have made an informed and free choice in favour of our country. The referendums were carried out in full conformity with the norms and principles of international law, no matter how our Western opponents, or even the Secretary-General — who, suddenly, without having a mandate to do so, decided to speak on behalf of the entire United Nations — may try to prove otherwise. More than 100 international observers — from Italy, Germany, Venezuela and Latvia — who observed the referendum also recognized its outcome as legitimate.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9143 (2022) · source
“It is nothing more than a low-grade provocation with a goal that is clear to all. On 27 September, we already spoke in detail of the reasons and the purposes for carrying out referendums in the Donetsk and Luhansk Republics, as well as in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions (see S/PV.9138). On 28 September, the final votes were tallied. The overwhelming majority of those who voted — 99 per cent in the Donetsk People’s Republic, 98 per cent in the Luhansk People’s Republic, 93 per cent in Zaporizhzhya and 87 per cent in the Kherson region — supported the integration of these regions into Russia. Despite the challenging security situation and the provocations of the Kyiv regime, the overwhelming majority of voters decided to vote in favour, ranging from 76 per cent in the Kherson region to 97 per cent in the Donetsk People’s Republic.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9143 (2022) · source
“Mr. Nebenzia (Russian Federation) (spoke in Russian): We are forced to note that some of our colleagues in the Security Council have reached a new low. Even the few vestiges of decorum that, it seemed to us, remained in this Chamber have been violated. I do not know of any other examples of the Security Council adopting a draft resolution that directly condemns one of the members of the Council. Tell me: does the Council seriously expect Russia to consider and support such a draft? And if not, then it turns out that the Council is intentionally pushing us to use the right of the veto in order to then wax lyrical about the fact that Russia abuses this right. Such openly hostile actions on the part of the West are a refusal to engage and cooperate within the Council. It is a refusal of practices and experience gained over many years.”
2022-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9143 (2022) · source
“Mr. Nebenzia (Russian Federation) (spoke in Russian): I will be very brief. I would simply like to draw members’ attention to the fact that what we have just heard from the representative of Albania confirms the double standards that I referred to with regard to Kosovo. I gave an example as to how our Western colleagues dealt with Kosovo and are now calling on us to take a completely different approach with respect to the referendums taking place in the territory that we are discussing. The meeting rose at 4.45 p.m.”
2022-09-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9138 (2022) · source
“We would like to believe that, among our colleagues in the Security Council and the General Assembly, someone will be able to intelligently explain that simple truth to Kyiv.”
2022-09-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9138 (2022) · source
“Otherwise they would not have stopped Kyiv in March when a peace deal was already visible. Instead, a terrible provocation in Bucha took place, followed by an order given to fight to the last Ukrainian, under the supervision of NATO mercenaries and instructors. The result of that scenario, as we predicted, turned out to be terrible. The people of Crimea and Donbas, but also those of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions have turned their backs on Kyiv. This process will invariably continue unless Kyiv realizes its mistakes and strategic miscalculations, begins to be guided by the interests of its own people and stops blindly carrying out the will of those who are quite pleased with themselves for having pushed the two brotherly nations against one another.”
2022-09-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9138 (2022) · source
“But today, like decades and centuries ago, we stand ready to uphold the interests of our homeland and protect the weak. It is in our genes. No Western propaganda or sophisticated political gameplay are going to change that. Everyone understands all too well that the only goal of the West, which we have been facing head-on near our borders, is to weaken and exsanguinate Russia as much as possible, and Western policymakers dream of subjugating Russia to their will. Kyiv’s Western sponsors completely disregard the wishes and interests of Ukraine. The people of Ukraine, just as the people of Russia, want peace. But that does not fit into the plans of London and Washington, who, as usual, are earning billions of dollars on the back of other people’s suffering — or Brussels, which plays along with them.”
2022-09-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9138 (2022) · source
“In his address today, President Zelenskyy again claimed that our mobilization efforts were aimed at primarily recruiting non-ethnic Russians, namely, men representing indigenous peoples of the Russian regions. But making such claims will not work in Russia. Western propaganda makers have but a poor understanding of the mentality of the Russian people. Our people can tell truth from lies. They know what they are fighting for — the way their grandfathers and great-grandfathers fought for centuries every time an external enemy tried to weaken our country. Time after time, in bloody battles, in different historical periods, we fought in battles to defend our right to freedom — our right to follow our own path. Our people remember their history, and they remember how hard it was earned.”
2022-09-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9138 (2022) · source
“So why is the West so surprised that people in Ukraine are now welcoming Russian troops as liberators, no matter how hard the Kyiv regime, which is only sustained by NATO spears, tries to assert the opposite, while threatening to punish the inhabitants of those regions for collaborationism? By the way, the authorities in Kyiv do not shy away from sometimes using the Russian language for tactical and propaganda purposes. Suffice it to mention that lately, President Zelenskyy has recorded a few video addresses in Russian in an attempt to disrupt the partial mobilization recently announced in Russia and drive a wedge between the authorities and society — following the traditional Maidan playbook.”
2022-09-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9138 (2022) · source
“Our European neighbours, except the hopelessly Russophobic Baltic States, are well aware of that and never behave like the Kyiv regime does at home. Belgium, Switzerland and Finland are the brightest examples of tolerance for a plurality of cultures and languages. The same can be said of the vast majority of Asian and African States with diverse ethnic compositions. It was only in Ukraine, where Russian-speakers account for at least 40 per cent of the population, where the West was given carte blanche for the forced Ukrainization of those people, contrary to all civilized norms and recommendations of international organizations.”
2022-09-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9138 (2022) · source
“After the 2014 coup d’état; after the ban on the Russian language, education and media; after the Maidan authorities for years had bombed the area where people refused to recognize the results of the coup d’état; after they burned alive Russian activists in Odessa; after they established a regime in Kyiv that raised Ukrainian nation above all and glorified the Nazi collaborators and their legacy — after all that how dare anyone say that the Kyiv authorities represent the interests of the people of Donbas and the Russian- speaking population at large, whom they subject either to Ukrainization or extermination? It is clear, however, that States that fully respect all of their resident peoples and historical ethnic groups need not fear for their territorial integrity.”
2022-09-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9138 (2022) · source
“As we know, the General Assembly provided collegially and by consensus an interpretation of the principle of territorial integrity in its Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations. According to the Declaration, all States should respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of any State whose Government respects the principle of self-determination of peoples and represents all peoples within its territory. Today our Western colleagues prefer to not recall that crucial criterion.”
2022-09-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9138 (2022) · source
“Let it be clear that, although, for show, Western delegations today are lamenting alleged violations of international law and the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, in reality they do not care about either of those. They fully support the right to self-determination only when it suits their geopolitical interests, as in the case of Kosovo, as well as for pursuing their own agenda in the Balkans, while preventing nations from pursing a path of sovereign development. But when self-determination appears to be the only way to save the people of Donbas from genocide, the West says they have no such right. The Charter of the United Nations stipulates the principle of respect for territorial integrity. However, such respect under international law is not unconditional.”
2022-09-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9138 (2022) · source
“I would like to underscore that, unlike Crimea, the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya, Kosovo had no referendum. There was no free expression of the people’s will. There only was a declaration of independence adopted by the interim self-governing authorities, which had clearly exceeded their remit. But for the West, it was enough to recognize Kosovo’s independence. They said the international law did not prohibit declaring independence. Today we hear a completely different position from Western delegations. That is another demonstration of their cynical double standards. I want to tell my colleagues from developing countries to not let themselves be misled.”
2022-09-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9138 (2022) · source
“The loudest critics of the referendum in the Donbas, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions used to be at the forefront of those supporting Kosovo’s independence back in the day. They used to say that the territory of Kosovo had the right to secede from Serbia in case of a real threat that the rights of Kosovar Albanians could be seriously violated. They called it “remedial secession”. Let me emphasize that those were not just claims, but the official legal position presented by Western countries at the International Court of Justice in 2008. At that time, however, Kosovar Albanians had not been threatened by anything for quite some time. Yugoslavia no longer existed and Serbia, which had been bombed by NATO, had foreign contingents stationed as peacekeepers.”
2022-09-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9138 (2022) · source
“Speaking about candidates for accession to the European Union, despite the fact that it has historically sympathized with Russia, today Serbia is being forced to adopt an anti-Russian position and to support the sanctions against my country, which would devastate Serbian economy. As a recent example, the United States Ambassador in Belgrade yesterday called on Serbia demanding explanations from the Serbian side regarding the plan for consultations between Russian and Serbian foreign ministries that was signed on the sidelines of the high-level week. What is that if not neocolonial diktat? When denying the people of Donbas and the liberated territories of Ukraine their right to self- determination, Western delegations are demonstrating egregious double standards.”
2022-09-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9138 (2022) · source
“The hysteria of Western delegations, including today in the Security Council, shows that the direct vote of citizens has long ceased to be the criterion of a democratic election. Self-determination is considered a democratic choice only if the West approves of it. In general, the Western model of democracy has been reduced to the liberal minority dictating its will to the conservative majority. This negation of the right to non-liberal and non-Russophobic non-conformity is applicable not only to Ukraine, incidentally, but also to their allies in the Western bloc. As recently as the day before yesterday, Head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen openly threatened Italy with consequences if Brussels did not like the outcome of the election in that country. Hungary is already on the blacklist.”
2022-09-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9138 (2022) · source
“The Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany, Annalena Baerbock, said that they were being “shot and raped and then made to check the box on the ballot sheet while soldiers with Kalashnikovs stood beside them”. It would seem then that they have to vote after they have been shot and raped. Those soldiers who were holding the Kalashnikovs, incidentally, were protecting the participants of the referendums from likely provocations on the Ukrainian side. Apart from the propaganda machine, the Ukrainian armed forces employed the full capacity of its own, or rather, the Western military machine, intensifying their artillery bombardment of cities where the referendums were being held in order to sew panic among the people there in a futile attempt to disrupt the voting.”
2022-09-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9138 (2022) · source
“They say that they were surprised to see how enthusiastic the people in the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics and the Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions were about the referendums and how long they had waited for them. Unfortunately, neither those assessments, nor interviews with residents of those regions, are aired in Western media coverage. Western States said from the very beginning that they would not recognize the results of those referendums, and they threw their entire weight behind the propaganda machinery to besmirch those votes. We are not surprised by the propagandist fake information that people were allegedly forced to vote and that they have been tortured for days in order to make them vote in favour of accession to Russia.”
2022-09-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9138 (2022) · source
“For all those years, we have been investing in the development of that region, as we will do with Donbas and other territories that Kyiv is deliberately trying to ruin. I know that our former Western partners will not listen to us, or rather they will pretend to have not heard us. But I will say that the referendums were held under exceptionally transparent conditions, with all electoral norms being fully observed. That is a firm fact, whatever the Kyiv regime and its Western sponsors say to the contrary. More than 100 independent international observers from 40 States monitored the vote. They have actively shared their feedback on media and social networks.”
2022-09-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9138 (2022) · source
“In an interview in August 2021, Volodymyr Zelenskyy advised all those who considered themselves Russian or loved the Russian language to leave Ukraine for Russia for their own sake and for the sake of their children. Now the people living in the Donbas, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions are carrying out his cynical recommendation. They are returning back home and taking back the lands where their ancestors lived for centuries. What also played a role is the fact that we were able to save the people of Crimea, who chose to return to Russia in 2014, from the tragic Donbas scenario. Back then, we heard similar accusations of aggression and annexation. Over these eight years, life in Crimea has changed for the better. People no longer fear for their lives. The economy is thriving, and infrastructure is developing.”
2022-09-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9138 (2022) · source
“Let me recall that the Minsk agreements provided for a ceasefire and direct dialogue between Kyiv and Donbas, granting a special status to Donbas through the adoption a new constitution. The authorities in Kyiv cynically flouted all those agreements and violated resolution 2202 (2015). Western delegations not only failed to condemn it, but even secretly and clearly supported that. Had it not been for that criminal connivance and hypocrisy, had the West forced its subordinates in Kyiv to uphold the basic human rights of respect for its people and their right to life, there would have been no need for our special military operation. Ukrainian authorities openly proclaimed that the Russian and Russian-speaking residents of those territories were “non-humans” and “species”.”
2022-09-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9138 (2022) · source