Paul
Goble
Staunton, March 28 – The United
Nations General Assembly yesterday approved a resolution declaring the
Moscow-organized “referendum” in Crimea illegal. The UN vote, of course, has no legal force,
although it does highlight the emergence of new divisions in the international
community, divisions that will certainly outlast the current crisis.
One hundred countries, including the
United States and its European allies, voted in favor of the resolution.
Against it and thus backing Moscow’s position were 11, including in addition to
Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, North Korea, Syria, Sudan, Zimbabwe,
Venezuela and Nicaragua (tatar-centr.blogspot.com/2014/03/blog-post_9250.html).
Fifty-eight countries abstained –
including the BRIKS countries, which are often thought to be interested in
stressing their commonality with Moscow ,China, India, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan,
Algeria, Vietnam, Egypt and Uzbekistan, and some, like Tajikistan, Turkmenistan,
Kyrgystan, Serbia and Israel did not take part in the voting at all.
Of the many interesting aspects of
this vote, two are immediately striking. On the one hand, the former Soviet
space is deeply divided, with many of the countries in it at least diplomatically
unwilling to support Moscow against the United States and the majority of the
international community, choosing to abstain or not participate at all.
And on the other, Russia has made a
real beachhead in Latin America. In addition to Cuba which has been in Moscow’s
camp since the 1960s, the Russian position was backed by Bolivia, Venezuela and
Nicaragua, a pointed reminder of the decline in American influence in that part
of the world.
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