Moscow begins the year in a weak position within the galaxy of the United Nations: Russia is ousted this year from five UN bodies after losing the elections held in each of these bodies in the space of two months only. Enough to temper the impression that reigned in 2023 at the organization’s headquarters in New York of the beginnings of a return to favor for Vladimir Putin’s Russia, with the support of the countries of the “Global South” in particular.
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With our correspondent in New York, Carrie Nooten
Last October, Russia initially failed to return to the Human Rights Council in Geneva: it was expelled in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine in April 2022… but thought it had a chance in the vote of 2023. Finally, Albania and Bulgaria won the two seats available to their group.
More discreetly, between November and. December, Russia also lost its place on the Executive Councils of UNESCO and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, or in the Assembly of the International Maritime Organization… while Moscow was constantly re-elected since its accession to each of these organizations for decades.
Notable losses of influence, while Russia has used chemical weapons in Ukraine as in Syria, and it needs to keep control of the rules of international trade for the Black Sea.
Finally, the Russian judge was ousted by a Romanian judge at the International Court of Justice, the ultimate snub for a permanent member of the Security Council.
Moscow, however, was betting on the weariness of the countries of the “global South” with regard to the omnipresence of the war in Ukraine, then on the diversion of world attention towards the war between Israel and Hamas to make its “come back” in 2023. This was without taking into account this shadow war of Kiev, of its Eastern European allies, with the blessing of Washington, London and Paris.
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