UNGA Vote Highlights Moscow’s International Isolation on Ukraine, Portnikov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 10 – A week ago, the UN General Assembly voted for a resolution calling on Russia to withdraw from occupied Crimea. Only16 countries voted in support of Russia and against the resolution, a measure of just how isolated Moscow has become on this issue, Vitaly Portnikov says.

            “Of these 16,” the Ukrainian commentator writes, “three are members of [Russia’s] Eurasian Economic Union,” but “only three.” And not one of the other former Soviet republics, “including such traditional Russian allies as Kazakhstan and Tajikistan” voted as Russia wanted (ru.krymr.com/a/vitaliy-portnikov-soyuzniki-ili-bratya-po-neschastyu-rezolyuciya-oon-po-krymu/30993375.html).

            “Of the remaining 13, only two – Serbia and Myanmar – could be with qualifications listed as democratic,” Portnikov continues. Instead, Russia got support from dictatorships and fellow outcasts like Nicaragua, Venezuela, North Korea and Zimbabwe who are less Russia’s allies than its comrades in isolation.

            Meanwhile, in the UN Security Council where Russia has a greater voice as a permanent member, Moscow organized a discussion on the Donbass with representatives from its puppet regimes making presentations. In response, the Western countries refused to take part, and the US representative denounced what Moscow was doing.

            Obviously, votes and meetings at the United Nations are not a perfect measure of a country’s status in the world; but when any regime so offends leading democracies and can only attract support from those who are dictatorships most find offensive, it can hardly be said to have the broad “international” support its propagandists and supporters invariably claim.