Maria Zakharova's Official Condemnation of UNSG Guterres

Oh my word! Maria Zakharova rips UNGS Guterres a new one with her condemnation of his statement on the referendums, which was approved by Russia's MFA, so it's the official position of the Russian government. It's a long condemnation, officially titled “Comment by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova on the UN Secretary-General's remarks on referendums in Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions and the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics,” but not too long:

We have taken note of a series of biased assessment statements by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on September 29 regarding the will of the population of Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions, as well as the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics. In particular, the Secretary General noted that "the decision to annex the Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions will not have legal force and deserves condemnation."

We remind you that Article 97 of the UN Charter assigns to the Secretary-General the role of "chief administrative officer of the Organization". The relevant functions do not confer on the administrator of the UN Secretariat the right to make biased political statements on behalf of the entire Organization. Nor is such a person authorized to interpret the norms of the Charter and the documents of the General Assembly, including the 1970 Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.

We would like to emphasize that Article 100 of the UN Charter requires UN Secretariat staff to respect the principle of impartiality, including the need to "refrain from any action that could affect their position as international officials responsible only to the Organization." In fact, the exact opposite is happening.

In this case, A. Guterres, obviously, not only exceeded his authority, but also actually solidarited with the collective West, again resorting to a selective approach in the interpretation of the unfolding events.

Thus, the Secretary General referred to the principle of non-use of force in international relations, but ignored the principle of self-determination of peoples enshrined in the UN Charter. And this is despite the fact that the decisions taken at referendums by the peoples of the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions reflect their free expression of will in full accordance with the Declaration of 1970.

This Declaration does guarantee territorial integrity, but only to those States where "Governments represent, without distinction as to race, creed or colour, all the people living in a given territory". It is quite obvious that the Kiev authorities, who for years have been persecuting a significant part of their population precisely on the basis of national, religious, linguistic and cultural characteristics, absolutely do not meet this criterion. Furthermore, according to the declaration, "every State has the duty to refrain from any violent act that deprives peoples of the < ... > their rights to self-determination, freedom and independence."

In fact, Ukraine grossly and consistently violated not only this provision, but also the Minsk agreements enshrined in UN Security Council Resolution 2202 (2015), with the active complicity of Western countries. And when this happened, no one heard a word of condemnation from the Secretary General against the Kiev regime, which, since the illegal coup d'état organized and sponsored by the West, had been at war with its own citizens for 8 years, as well as with everything Russian, including culture, language and identity. All these years, the Kiev regime has been shelling, killing, maiming, kidnapping and torturing the residents of Donbass. However, the Secretary-General preferred to remain silent about this.

Forgetting about the unanimous decisions of the UN Security Council, the Secretary-General acts without hesitation on the basis of politicized and non-consensual decisions of the General Assembly, giving on this shaky basis unlawful instructions to his subordinates. At the same time, it ignores our exhaustive explanations that the steps taken by Russia are carried out in strict accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter.

Against this background, we are outraged by A. Guterres' silence on the ongoing illegal US military invasion of Syria, which is accompanied by the occupation of part of its territory and the plundering of the country's natural resources. Nor had a word of condemnation been said by the Secretary-General of the shameful colonial and neocolonial practices, including the situation surrounding the island of Mayotte and the Malvinas Islands, which remained under colonial domination by France and Great Britain, respectively. The leadership of the UN Secretariat remained silent as the collective West "manually" implemented a plan to give Kosovo "independence" after its illegal military invasion of Yugoslavia in violation of the UN Charter. Then even a referendum was not needed: Western countries considered that a declaration of independence adopted unilaterally by a local self-government body with a clear excess of its powers would be quite enough. We remind you that in written explanations sent to the International Court of Justice, many of the Western colleagues stated that "international law does not prohibit the declaration of independence."

In this context, the UN Secretary-General's direct attacks on the fundamental right of the peoples of the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions to self-determination are another example of blatant double standards.

We consider unacceptable the fact that the UN Secretary-General has become an instrument of propaganda and pressure on member states, while he should be guided by the UN Charter in its entirety.

There're lots of passages deserving additional emphasis. I'd say that's quite a damning bombshell. And many will say all that and more was begging to be said, published and shared.