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UN chief had no authority to speak about referendums on the part of UN — diplomats

According to the mission, "if the UN charter is indeed ‘clear’ to the Secretary-General, he then should be aware of the content of Article 97 thereof, identifying the Secretary-General as the ‘Chief administrative officer the Organization’"

UNITED NATIONS, September 30. /TASS/. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had no authority to make statements on the part of the entire organization about the recent referendums in the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk (DPR and LPR) and the regions of Kherson and Zaporozhye, Russia’s mission to UN said on Friday.

The Russian Permanent Mission to the United Nations said in a statement that "administrative functions do not give the Secretary-General the right to make political statements on behalf of the UN as a whole," let alone to "single-handedly deliver interpretation of the norms of the Charter and the documents of the General Assembly."

"All that unambiguously represents ultra vires acts on the part of the highest UN official," the document says.

According to the mission, "if the UN charter is indeed ‘clear’ to the Secretary-General, he then should be aware of the content of Article 97 thereof, identifying the Secretary-General as the ‘Chief administrative officer the Organization.’"

The statement says that "the nature and the content" of the secretary-general’s remarks leave no doubt that another fundamental rule of the UN Charter has been violated - article 100, stipulating that the secretary-general and the personnel of the Secretariat "shall refrain from any action which might reflect on their position as international officials responsible only to the Organization."

"Regarding the situation around Ukraine the UN Secretary-General has been consistently demonstrating the same selective approach as the countries of the collective West, literally putting himself in the lineup with them," the Russian diplomats said.

Earlier, Guterres told reporters that the admission of the DPR, the LPR and the regions of Kherson and Zaporozhye into Russia will have no legal force. In his words, referendums in those territories cannot be described as a true expression of its people’s will, and the UN stance on that is clear.

Referendums on becoming a part of Russia were held in the DPR and the LPR, as well as in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions from September 23 to 27. An overwhelming majority of their residents voted in favor of becoming a part of Russia.

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