Tag: UN

Russia IL-76 crash under scrutiny

Blog, Conflict, Europe, Politics, Russia

Brussels 26.01.2024 In case the use of an U.S. or a German surface-to-air missile systems for the deadly attack on Russia’s Il-76 plane (pictured) is confirmed, Western countries will become complicit in the crime committed by the Kiev government, Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky said.

“According to preliminary investigation, Ukrainian armed forces carried out this terrorist attack using an anti-aircraft missile system. The missiles were launched from the village of Liptsy in Kharkov region,” the Russian diplomat said. “These could have been either American Patriot or German-made Iris-T missiles. If confirmed, this will make the Western suppliers of this ammo complicit in this crime. Just as they are complicit in shelling of peaceful neighborhoods of Russian cities that Ukrainian armed forces carry out with Western weapons.”

On January 24, Ukrainian forces shot down a Russian Il-76 military transport aircraft that was carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war (POW) for exchange. All 74 people onboard, including 65 Ukrainians perished in the incident. The Russian Defense Ministry called the catastrophe a terrorist act and said Kiev authorities knew about the transportation POWs for an exchange that was planned at the Kolotilovka checkpoint.
In his video address late on Wednesday, President Zelensky said it was “obvious that the Russians are playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners, with the feelings of their relatives and with the emotions of our society”.

The Ukrainian leader, who has cancelled a planned regional trip linked to his birthday on Thursday, stressed that “all clear facts must be established”.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov condemned the downing of the plane as a “monstrous act”, according to Russian news agencies. He told reporters that if Mr Zelensky meant an international inquiry into “the criminal actions of the Kyiv regime”, it was definitely needed.

Russian Ambassador Antonov on food crisis

Blog, International, Politics

Brussels 28.05.2022 Russian ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov on Friday, May 28, said the food crisis, which had been unfolding for the past couple years, worsened due sanctions on Russia by the U.S. and its allies.

“The crisis was further exacerbated due to the introduction by Washington and its satellites of illegitimate sanctions against Russia,” the diplomat said in statement released by the Russian Embassy in Washington. “Despite the references of the U.S. officials to exemptions from the restrictions, which allegedly provide for the opportunity for our country to trade in farm goods, domestic exporters often don’t have a chance to make shipments.”

“They face blocked payments, denials of loans and insurance, problems with booking freight ships, purchase of farm equipment and even seeds,” he went on to say. “In addition, the US continues to increase import taxes on our fertilizers.”

Antonov described such actions as “the utmost hypocrisy” and called the US attempts to blame Russia for the food crisis as absolutely unfounded.

“We urge a halt to shifting the blame,” he continued. “Russia is committed to its export obligations and is ready for negotiations to resolve this most serious problem, including through the UN.”

The diplomat also said that difficulties in the food market have been building up for a long time, at least over the past two years. “They are associated with miscalculations and systemic errors in the macroeconomic policy – primarily financial and foreign trade policies – and energy and food policies of Western countries,” he said. “At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant disruptions of supply chains.”

“Freight costs have almost doubled,” he continued. “Naturally, all this couldn’t not fail but lead to a sharp increase in food prices. Wheat prices increased by a quarter over 2021.”

The Wall Street Journal earlier reported that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is negotiating with Russia and Ukraine to unblock the export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea in exchange for the lifting of a number of sanctions that hinder the export of Russian fertilizers. Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Vasily Nebenzya and Permanent Representative of the United States Linda Thomas-Greenfield confirmed that there are talks on resuming the exports of Ukrainian grain and Russian fertilizers to the global market. However, the sides insists that these issues are discussed separately from each other and don’t assume any exchanges.

Russia suspended from UN HRC Geneva

Blog, International, Politics

Brussels 07.04.2022 Today UN’s general assembly on Thursday, April 7, voted to suspend Russia from the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, in a new international reaction to Kremlin over the invasion of Ukraine and alleged atrocities, especially in the town of Bucha near the capital.

Ninety-three (93) UN members approved Russia’s suspension — the first imposed on any permanent member of the UN Security Council.

However, 24 UN members, including China, Iran, Bolivia and Kazakhstan, voted against Russia’s suspension. Another 58 countries abstained, including India, Indonesia and Egypt, showing that a wide range of countries are either siding with Moscow or remaining neutral as the military conflict continues.

Reacting upon the news Russian diplomat Gennady Kuzmin from the mission to the UN, said that the Human Rights Council has been in fact “monopolised by a single group of states that exploits the mechanism to achieve their opportunistic goals”.
“These states over years have either engaged in gross and mass violations of human rights or showed indulgence towards such”.

UN: Borrell-Lavrov meeting in NYC

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Brussels 24.09.2021 The EU High Representative Josep Borrell met with the Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov, in the margins of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly on Thursday. They discussed EU-Russia relations as well as pressing international issues.(Image: archive)

High Representative Borrell addressed some of the challenges in EU-Russia relations, the objective being to aim at a more stable and predictable relationship. Disagreements persist, in particular in regards to Russia’s violations of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, in the area of democracy and human rights, as well as with regard to cyber, disinformation and other hybrid threats.

The discussion focused on international issues where the EU and Russia should continue to cooperate, with a view to addressing global security challenges such as the situation in Afghanistan, Libya, Mali, the Middle East Peace Process or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Brussels: no wreath to Pushkin

Blog, Europe

Brussels 06.06.2021 June 6, on the birthday of the great Russian poet A.S. Pushkin, within the framework of the program to support and develop multilingualism and cultural diversity, the United Nations celebrates the Day of the Russian Language. One of the goals of this program is to maintain the equality of all six official languages ​​of the United Nations: English, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, Russian and French.

The decision to hold the Days of Languages ​​was taken by the Department of Public Information (now the Department of Global Communications) on the eve of the International Mother Language Day, celebrated annually on February 21 at the initiative of UNESCO.

The purpose of the UN Languages ​​Days is to raise awareness of the history, culture and development of each of the six official UN languages ​​among the staff of the Organization. Each language has the opportunity to find its own unique approach and develop its own program of activities for the day, including inviting famous poets and writers and developing informational and thematic materials.
Cultural events, among others, may include performances of musical and literary works, competitions, exhibitions, lectures, pop performances and cultural performances, national cuisine days and performances by folk groups, film screenings and express language lessons for those wishing to learn another from the official languages ​​of the UN.

This year the officials of the Russian House in Brussels ignored the central day of the calendar – the birthday of Alexandre Pushkin. His monument has not a single wreath, not a single flower. The lack of funds cannot be an excuse, since there are representative offices of Gazprom, Lukoil, AlRosa and other grandiose Russian companies in Brussels, for which it is not difficult to foot the bill for the laying of wreaths at the monument to the great poet.

From the point of view of law, the state language is the most important factor in preserving the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia. And the encroachment, belittling of the state language, as the most important attribute of Russian statehood, is nothing more than an encroachment on the foundations of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation, an encroachment on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country. Russian language, according to Part 1 of Art. 68 of the Constitution, art. 1 of the Law “On the State Language of the Russian Federation” is the state language, then, thereby, the Russian language is also an integral attribute of the Russian statehood.

The Great Pushkin is the founder of the literary Russian language. It is on June 6, on his birthday, that his native language celebrated. In 2010, the UN established June 6th as a holiday of the Russian language.
Interestingly, have you heard about this in the “House of Russian Culture” in Brussels? .. And, in general, why do Russians need to maintain a whole “Russian House”, pay salaries, travel allowances and leave to people who do not know their jobs? Or they don’t even want to know!
Alas, the diagnosis is obvious: “When and what bureaucrat was not convinced that Russia is a pie that you can freely approach and eat?”

Syria versus OPCW

Blog, International, Politics

A global chemical weapons watchdog OPCW says it has deployed fact-finding teams to investigate an alleged chemical attack in Douma, a town in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta kept in hands of insurgents.

“The Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirms that the Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) team is on its way to Syria and will start its work as of Saturday 14 April, 2018,” – the official confirmed.

The announcement came a few days after the alleged chemical attack which, according to NGOs on the ground, claimed the lives of more than 85 civilians and harmed thousand more.

Syrian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Bashar Al-Jaafari confirmed Damascus’ readiness to provide unlimited assistance to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) mission coming to the city of Douma in order to investigate into an alleged chemical attack.

“My country Syria stresses its unlimited cooperation with the OPCW to fulfill the commitments stated in the convention of the prohibition of the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons,” Al-Jaafari said during an emergency meeting on Syria at the UN Security Council this week.

Once again Al-Jaafari reminded that Syrian government has no possession of any chemicals weapons including chlorine that was allegedly used over the weekend in Douma, he added.

“The Syrian Arabic Republic stresses once again it does not possess any chemical weapons of any type, including chlorine,”Al- Jaafari said, while addressing UN.

However the record of co-operation between OPCW and Syrian government is far from being flawless. Back in 2017 Syria rejected the conclusions of the report of the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism on Khan Sheikhoun incident because it was not “neutral and not professional, and it built its false charges against Syria on the process of fabricating evidence and manipulating information” Al-Jaafari claimed.

In a session (November 2017) of the Security Council on the report OPCW-UN Joint Mechanism, Al-Jaafari wondered how the Mechanism didn’t consider Khan Sheikhoun incident as a political issue, saying “Since when is chemical terrorism considered a fully technical issue and not a political one?”

Al-Jaafari said that some states’ governments claim that they adhere to ethics and they consider themselves as custodians of the provisions of international law and the UN Charter while at the same time they adopt policies that violate these noble moral principles and they exploit them to implement their destructive interference agendas“.

Al Jafari UN

“Some UN committees, such as the Joint Mechanism, which should be neutral, professional, and credible, have proven through their work that they are biased and politicized,” Al-Jaafari continued ‘(2017).

Ambassador cited a number of examples indicating to lack of neutrality and professionalism by the Joint Mechanism, and regretted that the  report on the internal investigations on the incident of Khan Sheikhoun did not reveal the truth about the attack.

Syria-OPCW turbulent record casts doubts if the current mission findings would be accepted by Syrian government as objective. Subsequently it asises even more doubts if military action is an adequate solution: Saddam Hussein also claimed he had no chemical weapons of mass destruction, however four star US Gen.Colin Powell had an alternative point of view…

The question on alleged chemical weapons use in Syria leads the West to another dilemma: is Abu-Bakr al Baghdadi a viable alternative to Bashar Al-Assad?

#Trump opponents dash to clairvoyants

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trump-big-smile

The failure to promote #Hillary for the White House has been taken hard
by some of mass media outlets, turning in despair to supranatural powers in an attempt to stop #Trump to enter the office.
After the  chorus of university professors has admitted the idea of impeaching #Trump as president elect before inauguration as purely theoretical exercise the media sharks dashed to clairvoyants.
Apparently, there were not so many eager to mix into American political life, so the newspapers have turned to the legacy of the deceased Bulgarian clairvoyant reportedly predicting failure of the 45th US president to enter the office. The move indicating the frustrations of loser’s camp of the Democrats has reached its apogee.
The curse of the mystic is supposed to work as a ‘dirty bomb’ contaminating the enviroment and building up tensions in coming period before the inauguration, indicating along with the other signs that the transition of power will be everything but smooth.
However the blind Bulgarian psychic warning about ‘demise’ of the 45th president of the US (Donald Trump?) reveals media intentions to bless turmoil.
The mystic legacy picked up a la carte, has little value if any: where were her predictions on failures of both Bulgarians Irina Bokova an joining her in competition for the United Nations Secretary job Kristalina Georgieva? Or the US elections were closer to the mystics heart than the elections of the chief of the UN?
Further, the greatest of the European oracles of all the times has been used by #Trump opponents to reinforce the message: #Nostradamus Quatrain 81 warning about ‘the great shameless, audacious bawler’ and the other verse on change of laws in Byzantium have been blended by the conspirology theorists in a ‘piece of evedence’. Both pieces assembled produced fabricated ‘prediction’ for #Trump. What a nonsense! It can be good enough only for those who still believe in flat Earth resting of three whales:)
But even then and those already new, that the stars incline us, they do not bind us.
Astra inclinant, sed obligant!

Charles Tannock, MEP interview on Libya from EP, Brussels

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Published on Oct 13, 2016 in ‘Brussels Diplomatic’

Interview with Carles Tannock ( ECR – UK ) on problems of Libya five years after Gaddafi’s assassination: playground for an international terrorism and jihad
MEP Charles Tannock – a member of Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament

#Gaddafi’s assassination

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gaddafi-sarkoziBook review.

Massive waves of refugees and migrants fleeing ISIS ravaging failed state of Libya cause the EU grave security concern. Dabbed as ‘Afghanistan at European doorstep’ it became a den of an international terrorism and challenge to the European political leadership, once promising a quick fix to an internal conflict with help of the NATO iron fist.

Five years after the collapse of the Libyan state followed the assassination of its ultimate Guide, Colonel Gaddafi, 20/10/2011,  the solution of the conflict if more of a ‘mirge in a desert’ than a tangible political project. However experts insist that the path to reconstituting lies through an objective assessment of the past decisions, actions and strategies leading to the catastrhopie.

In ‘L’Assassinat de Kadhafi’ (in French) Belgium journalist and expert on Africa, Dominique Ugeaux (65) shares his vision on the causes of the Libya disintegration,, poining at the murder of Colonel Gaddafi’s as a fatal error, leading the chain reaciton of events beyond control of Western powers.

In five years passed after the assassination no light was casted on the abhorrent end of Muammar Gaddafi  that shocked the world confronted with the frames from videos of tortures in his last hours. Although immediately denoucnced by some high officials as a ‘war crime’ it was never properly investigated.

Insisting that this crime opened a ‘green light’ to ascendance of international jihad in Libya, and beyond, expanding to the whole of African continent, and further, tormenting the East and the West, Ugeux claims  justice for the slain Colonel for the sake of Libyans and…  Europeans, namely French, who played an imminent role in Libyan tragedy. 

Without failure Domingique Ugeux is a firm believer in international law as the universal tool of progress, and ideals making the world turn round.

Reminiscent of his father a humanist and a man of principle, who inspired him to pick up a pen, Ugeaux dives into  memories of events, and encounters month before Gaddafi’s death, evoking of his sherpa role in engaging legal defence to conoured by Western powers Colonel.

In vain, the abrupt and violent end of Gaddafi’s, shrouding his death in mystery, left efforts of legal defence of Jacques Vergés unsolicited.

However Ugeux does not accept the crime scene as an epilogue to Gaddafi’s rule: he insists on an objective investigation of political actions of responsible at power internationally – NATO, interpreting UN ‘resolution 1973’ protecting civilians, and nationally, especially addressing questions to former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, discarding African Union diplomatic achievement to convince Gaddafi to step down, while misleading public opinion in France pointing at military actions as an ultimate solution.

The role of the opinion leaders is of a special attention in the author’s narrative, revealing  the intrigues around the destruction of the Libyan leader – Ugeux blames philosopher Bernard-Henry Lévy (BHL) for de facto replacing the minister of foreign affairs, not a petty misdemeanor in a democratic country as France. While mixing into political discourse with his own perceptions, BHL initiative to engage as an activist to  travel to Tripoli meeting opposition played not the least role in Gaddafi’s tragic fate.

Raising questions to former president Sarkozy, and his loyal friend BHL on consequences of the Libyan adventure the author is not just exercising in rhetoric, but is determined to raise public awareness that only with bringing responsible of breaching laws to justice one can attempt to construct better future for Libya and for all.

Festinatio justitiae est noverca infortunii…

‘Assassinat de Kadhafi’ Dominique  Ugeux, Editions Surprendre,  2016