It appears that Ukraine has discovered an interesting fact about Russia's membership in the UN....
At Wednesday night’s historic meeting of the United Nations Security Council, as the gathered ambassadors finished giving prepared speeches calling for de-escalation, Vasily Nebenzya, Russian ambassador to the U.N., confirmed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement that the country had begun a “special military operation” in Ukraine. In response, Ukraine’s ambassador openly questioned Russia’s status as one of the most powerful members of the Security Council.
Sergiy Kyslytsy, who’d prepared a statement arguing for diplomacy, ditched it to castigate the Russians for their unprovoked aggression — but only after he’d read aloud the section of the U.N. Charter on admitting new members and accused Russia of having used a "sneaky" loophole to gain the power to veto Security Council action.
It's a bold claim — but one that isn’t as farfetched as it may seem. The Soviet Union died in December 1991, but there are several possible dates we might place on the U.S.S.R.’s metaphorical death certificate. Whichever one is deemed correct could alter the way international politics has functioned since the end of the Cold War.
Fast-forward to 1991. The Soviet Union, having barely avoided a coup that August, was straining and on the verge of collapse. By December, the three Baltic countries under Soviet rule — Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia — had already declared their independence, and Ukrainians had voted to do the same. On Dec. 8, the leaders of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia signed the Belovezha Accords, which declared that “the U.S.S.R. as a subject of international law and a geopolitical reality no longer exists." The Commonwealth of Independent States would replace it, formed of states existing on equal footing.
As this was happening, there was mass speculation about what to do with the Soviet seat at the U.N. Nobody was sure just who the ambassador sitting behind the U.S.S.R.’s placard represented. The CIS isn’t a “state” and so couldn’t be the Security Council’s newest member. Russian President Boris Yeltsin told U.S. Secretary of State James Baker that Russia wanted to take over the seat at a meeting on Dec. 15 — which surprised Baker, since Russia hadn’t declared independence, wanted recognition as a new state but also wanted to take over much of the Soviet machinery.
Eight other former Soviet Republics joined the CIS on Dec. 17 by signing the Alma-Alta Protocols. Among those documents was a decision that the Commonwealth would “support Russia's continuance of the membership of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the United Nations, including permanent membership of the Security Council, and other international organizations.” All the others — except for founding members Ukraine and Belarus — would follow the normal admissions process.
Neither the Security Council nor General Assembly ever voted to approve Russia’s membership.
Ukraine now argues that with the Soviet Union completely dissolved, Russia should have had to reapply for admission to the U.N. like the rest of the former Soviet republics. “For over 30 years, people have been sitting in the U.N. Security Council with a sign that reads ‘Russian Federation’ and pretending to be a legitimate member,” Kyslytsy, the Ukrainian ambassador, told The Kyiv Post this month. “Everyone around thinks this is normal.”
He has a point: The successor states of the former Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia had to reapply to join the U.N. individually. Neither the Security Council nor General Assembly ever voted to approve Russia’s membership. Yeltsin himself referred to the seat as “vacant” before Russia moved in.
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At Wednesday night’s historic meeting of the United Nations Security Council, as the gathered ambassadors finished giving prepared speeches calling for de-escalation, Vasily Nebenzya, Russian ambassador to the U.N., confirmed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement that the country had begun a “special military operation” in Ukraine. In response, Ukraine’s ambassador openly questioned Russia’s status as one of the most powerful members of the Security Council.
Sergiy Kyslytsy, who’d prepared a statement arguing for diplomacy, ditched it to castigate the Russians for their unprovoked aggression — but only after he’d read aloud the section of the U.N. Charter on admitting new members and accused Russia of having used a "sneaky" loophole to gain the power to veto Security Council action.
It's a bold claim — but one that isn’t as farfetched as it may seem. The Soviet Union died in December 1991, but there are several possible dates we might place on the U.S.S.R.’s metaphorical death certificate. Whichever one is deemed correct could alter the way international politics has functioned since the end of the Cold War.
Fast-forward to 1991. The Soviet Union, having barely avoided a coup that August, was straining and on the verge of collapse. By December, the three Baltic countries under Soviet rule — Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia — had already declared their independence, and Ukrainians had voted to do the same. On Dec. 8, the leaders of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia signed the Belovezha Accords, which declared that “the U.S.S.R. as a subject of international law and a geopolitical reality no longer exists." The Commonwealth of Independent States would replace it, formed of states existing on equal footing.
As this was happening, there was mass speculation about what to do with the Soviet seat at the U.N. Nobody was sure just who the ambassador sitting behind the U.S.S.R.’s placard represented. The CIS isn’t a “state” and so couldn’t be the Security Council’s newest member. Russian President Boris Yeltsin told U.S. Secretary of State James Baker that Russia wanted to take over the seat at a meeting on Dec. 15 — which surprised Baker, since Russia hadn’t declared independence, wanted recognition as a new state but also wanted to take over much of the Soviet machinery.
Eight other former Soviet Republics joined the CIS on Dec. 17 by signing the Alma-Alta Protocols. Among those documents was a decision that the Commonwealth would “support Russia's continuance of the membership of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the United Nations, including permanent membership of the Security Council, and other international organizations.” All the others — except for founding members Ukraine and Belarus — would follow the normal admissions process.
Neither the Security Council nor General Assembly ever voted to approve Russia’s membership.
Ukraine now argues that with the Soviet Union completely dissolved, Russia should have had to reapply for admission to the U.N. like the rest of the former Soviet republics. “For over 30 years, people have been sitting in the U.N. Security Council with a sign that reads ‘Russian Federation’ and pretending to be a legitimate member,” Kyslytsy, the Ukrainian ambassador, told The Kyiv Post this month. “Everyone around thinks this is normal.”
He has a point: The successor states of the former Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia had to reapply to join the U.N. individually. Neither the Security Council nor General Assembly ever voted to approve Russia’s membership. Yeltsin himself referred to the seat as “vacant” before Russia moved in.
