UNITED NATIONS, February 13. /TASS/. The United States is whipping up tensions around Ukraine, including within the United Nations Security Council, due to domestic political reasons, Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polynaksy said on Sunday.
"Our colleague from the United States [US Permanent Representative to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield] could raise the issue in such a provocative manner, advance such theses that look quite unusual even for the Security Council only because of the domestic political situation, and we told about that," he said in an interview with the Solovyov Live YouTube channel, commenting on the US-initiated meeting of the UN Security Council on the situation around Ukraine on January 31.
According to Polyansky, the US diplomat "burnt all her bridges of escape." "Many countries, our colleagues tried to bring it home to the Americans that it was wrong to stage a megaphone diplomacy session in public, that is there was anything to discuss we could do it in a closed format, as we did it many times and it would be more useful. And that there would be no use from this meeting. But once Biden had already announced an open Security Council meeting and she had said about it in several interviews, the situation was that the American would either lose the face or it would be an open meeting. Most of our colleagues lacked courage to prevent this unnecessary exercise we had to undergo," he said.
"The influence of the domestic political agenda is definitely felt. We felt it on Afghanistan’s example and on other dossiers, for instance, North Korea. Obviously, they are forced to adjust to priorities. Moreover, it is clearly seen during the change of the administrations how they push through their agenda, which methods they use for that," the Russian diplomat noted, adding that it hinders the work of the UN Security Council "as it was established for absolutely different things."
The United Nations Security Council had a US-initiated meeting on the situation around Ukraine on January 31. The US claimed that Russia was allegedly planning an aggression against Ukraine. Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia denied all allegations.
Amid domestic policy failures and following the hasty withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, US President Joe Biden’s ratings have seen a dramatic drop in recent months. Thus, Real Clear Politics said on February 10 that the average level of support for the US president had dropped below 40%, for the first time over his presidency.