Looking back at Russia's Abuse of its Security Council Presidency

Russia was just getting started. On April 24th, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, presided over an open meeting of the Security Council discussing the topic of “effective multilateralism” through defense of the UN Charter. The foreign minister of the regime whose invasion violated the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine shamelessly preached the virtues of “the purposes and principles of the UN Charter” and “the sovereign equality of all states.” Mr. Lavrov added that this “is what we all signed onto when we ratified the Charter of the United Nations.”

Mr. Lavrov tried to turn the tables on the West, accusing the United States and its “subordinates” of trying to replace the UN Charter and genuine, “inclusive” multilateralism with a Western-centric “rules-based order.” The UN Charter, which UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that Russia has violated, is a key component of international law that undergirds a rules-based order rather than a world where the only rule is 'might makes right.'

Russia’s foreign minister trotted out the Russian regime’s tiresome talking points rationalizing its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, which Russia likes to call a “special military operation.” Lavrov claimed that Russia’s goal in Ukraine was to protect the Russian-speaking minority in eastern Ukraine where, he charged, the “openly racist” Kyiv regime has tried to eliminate the Russian religion, language, and culture. He also said that NATO’s continued expansion to countries closer to Russian territory threatened Russia’s vital security interests.

In her remarks to the Security Council, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield brought some reality to the proceedings. “Our hypocritical convenor today, Russia, invaded its neighbor, Ukraine, and struck at the heart of the UN Charter and all the values we hold dear,” Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield said. “This illegal, unprovoked, and unnecessary war runs directly counter to our most shared principles: that a war of aggression and territorial conquest is never, ever acceptable. Russia simply wants to redraw international borders by force, in violation of this very UN Charter.”

Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield brought up Russia’s illegal detention of Americans including, most recently, the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. Paul Whelan has been illegally detained by the Russian regime for over four years. Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield pointed to the gallery in the Security Council chamber where Paul Whelan’s sister, Elizabeth, stood up.

“I want Minister Lavrov to look into her eyes and see her suffering,” the U.S. ambassador said. “I want you to see what it’s like to miss your brother for four years. To know he is locked up, in a Russian penal colony, simply because you want to use him for your own means. I am calling on you, right now, to release Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich immediately. To let Paul and Evan come home. And to cease this barbaric practice once and for all.”

Foreign Minister Lavrov did not make eye contact with Elizabeth Whelan. And while the American Wall Street Journal reporter languishes in a Russian jail, Lavrov’s big complaint was that some Russian journalists were denied a U.S. visa to attend the Security Council meeting with him. During his press conference the following day, Lavrov called the denial of visas to Russian journalists “appalling” and said that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution means “nothing in practice.”

Foreign Minister Lavrov represents a dictatorship that regularly jails journalists and political dissidents who do not toe the party line. A recent example is the sentencing of the journalist and fierce critic of the Russian regime, Vladimir Kara-Murza, to 25 years in prison for speaking truth to power.

In his final statement to the Russian court, Mr. Kara-Murza compared his prosecution to a Stalin-era show trial. “I’m in jail for my political views,” he said. “For speaking out against the war in Ukraine. For many years of struggle against Vladimir Putin’s dictatorship.”

Mr. Kara-Murza nevertheless expressed confidence that “the day will come...when at the official level it will be recognized that two times two is still four; when a war will be called a war, and a usurper a usurper; and when those who kindled and unleashed this war, rather than those who tried to stop it, will be recognized as criminals.”

Sadly, Russia’s abuse of its presidency of the Security Council by making a mockery of the truth demonstrates that such a day of reckoning is far off if it ever happens at all.