"Russia's presidency of the UN Security Council is the death warrant of multilateral institutions"

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the UN, September 22, 2022. Getty Images via AFP - MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO

Text by: Daniel Vallot Follow

6 min

This is a new slap in the face for Ukraine and its allies: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will address the United Nations Security Council on Monday, April 24 in New York. As a result of the functioning of this council, which has allowed Russia to assume the presidency since the beginning of April, despite the invasion of Ukraine and the indictment for war crimes, by international justice, of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Interview with Romuald Sciora, researcher at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations, and UN specialist.

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RFI: Sergei Lavrov will speak this Monday at the UN Security Council and Russia has taken over the presidency of this Security Council since April 1 and in the middle of the war in Ukraine: is it a terrible symbol for the UN?

Romuald Sciora: From a symbolic point of view, obviously, it is a bit of a mess. But these are the UN rules, and there is obviously nothing illegal about that, because it is impossible to prevent a member of the Security Council, a permanent member to boot, from speaking. Or there would have to be unanimity among the other members, which could not happen – China alone would oppose it.

Unfortunately, it is only natural that Russia should be able to preside over the Security Council. Nothing can go against this, and so it is only right that the Russian Foreign Minister should use this presidency as a podium to express himself and say what he wants to say to the international community. But indeed, it is a mess and testifies that the multilateral system is no longer operational today.

This shows that it would require a total overhaul and that there is still something wrong with a multilateral institution like the UN still allowing this kind of thing: to see Sergei Lavrov speak to the world when Russia has illegally invaded a country.

It has been three weeks since Russia's presidency of the UN Security Council began. Did Russia take the opportunity to advance its ideas, to somehow push its agenda within the body?

First, we must see things as they are. The UN is not what it was in the 1990s, or even in the 2000s. The political UN is today a dwarf on the international political scene! I am not talking about the major humanitarian agencies such as UNHCR, UNICEF or the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, but about the political UN as we hoped for it, dreamed of in the 1990s, after the end of the Soviet Union. This political UN today is almost invisible, as we see with the crisis in Ukraine.

Russia has therefore not really advanced its agenda, firstly because the United Nations no longer represents much as a political card, and secondly because this presidency essentially has a technical role; There was no real possibility for Russia to advance any agenda on this occasion. On the other hand, it offers her visibility and a form of legitimation absolutely welcome for her. Although the United Nations, as I told you, has become a dwarf on the international political scene, the fact that there has been a great deal of communication about this presidency will have given it a very beneficial influence for it. To be able to express himself in this way in the Security Council as Sergey Lavrov will do on Monday is a blessing for Putin, and an opportunity to be able to make his own propaganda.

► Read also: Moscow ironically on the United States that did not grant visas to Russian journalists

Precisely, what does Russia say today at the UN and what is its strategy at the United Nations, in the context of this war in Ukraine and therefore the invasion of a border and sovereign country?

Today, there is no real strategy on Russia's part at the UN. Their strategy is to maintain a form of status quo. As I said, the political United Nations is no longer of much interest to the major Powers, because we are no longer really in the era of multilateralism. So, if there is Russia's strategy at the UN, it is rather to maintain a kind of status quo, to keep the strongholds it can still occupy and use them as is the case today.

140 countries voted last February to demand that Russia withdraw from Ukraine. Does this vote by the United Nations General Assembly still weigh heavily on the international scene?

Of course, but let us also not forget one thing, and that is that the votes of the General Assembly, as you know, are not binding. This has never stopped Israel from continuing its annexation policy; it did not change anything for the United States, condemned several times by the General Assembly. Today it is Russia, it will not change anything and very sincerely, knowing the Russians and Vladimir Putin, they do not care at all. This has no impact on their population or on the populations of friendly or allied countries.

► READ ALSO: In Ukraine, the UN General Assembly demands the "immediate withdrawal" of Russian troops

But what has changed for Russia, basically, at the UN over the past year and the invasion of Ukraine, it is an isolated country, weakened, within the United Nations or not so much?

Has Russia really lost diplomatically? The question arises. It has gained a very strong rapprochement with China, with India, with many countries in Asia, with many countries in Africa of course, it has also gained in rapprochement with South American countries. Russia does not seem to me to be truly isolated on the international scene. It is Western illusions that tend to make us believe this, but it is not isolated. It is vis-à-vis the United States and Europe, but it was largely so before the war. So, diplomatically, Russia does not really emerge weakened from this crisis if it were to freeze or end tomorrow.

As far as the United Nations is concerned, it is the same thing. There are five permanent members on the Security Council, with a Western bloc that has been the same for more than 80 years (France, Britain, the United States) and a China-Russia bloc that is more cohesive than ever. So no, for me, there is no weakening of Russia at the UN.

On the other hand, if there was one thing to remember, it is that Sergey Lavrov's speech to the United Nations and this Russian presidency of the Security Council - when Russia illegally invaded a country whose independence it had recognised - really marks the death warrant of the multilateral institutions, at least of the symbol they could represent until now.

► Also listen: "Sergey Lavrov's visit to South America is not of the same nature depending on the country"

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