Mass diplomatic boycott of Russian Foreign Minister's speech at two UN forums

The most palpable reflection of Russia's isolation on the international scene was, this Tuesday, the departure of dozens of diplomats from the room where the UN Human Rights Council met in Geneva, after announcing the broadcast of a video message Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister.

It was the second planting of the Russian foreign minister in just over an hour, after the one suffered at the Conference on Disarmament, also in the Swiss city.

The Human Rights Council celebrates this Tuesday the second session of its 49th annual meeting, and Lavrov has not been able to attend due to the sanctions imposed on the Kremlin.

The boycott of around 140 diplomats representing some 40 Western countries and their allies, including Japan, left the room empty, except for the presence of the Russian ambassador to the UN in Geneva, as well as members of the delegations from Syria, China and Venezuela. , among others.

Also by telematic means, and shortly after Lavrov's intervention, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, became the spokesman for the international condemnation of Russia for the invasion of Ukraine.

Blinken accused Moscow of violating international law and pointed to the possibility of expelling the Slavic country from this international organization.

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“It is worth asking whether a UN member state that tries to take over another UN member state while committing horrific human rights abuses and causing massive civilian suffering deserves to remain in this Council,” said Blinken, who stressed that there is no room for equidistance, because the only person responsible for the conflict is the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

In his speech before the Conference on Disarmament an hour earlier, Lavrov accused the European Union of letting itself be carried away by "Russophobic hysteria" by supplying lethal weapons to Ukraine, while the Russian offensive against Kharkov and Kiev intensifies.

Lavrov, who repeated the objective of "denazifying Ukraine" that the Kremlin alleges in the offensive, also asked the United States to withdraw its nuclear arsenal from Europe and reiterated the demand for security guarantees from NATO.

The pariah status of the international community that Russia has dragged on since last Thursday it launched what it calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine, and which in practice has turned out to be the invasion of the neighboring country, was revealed again in the minute of silence that the Conference on Disarmament kept this Tuesday in memory of the Ukrainian "victims" of the conflict.

This Monday, the UN Extraordinary General Assembly, which is scheduled to vote on a resolution condemning the Russian invasion, began the session in the same way.

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