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US seeks to turn UN into State Department branch, Russian lawmaker says

Leonid Slutsky called the vote at the General Assembly on another anti-Russian resolution on the non-recognition of referendums in the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions the result of Washington's campaign to intimidate other countries

LDPR Leader and Russian State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Leonid Slutsky Sergei Fadeichev/TASS

LDPR Leader and Russian State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Leonid Slutsky

© Sergei Fadeichev/TASS

MOSCOW, October 14. /TASS/. The United Nations General Assembly’s vote on referendums in the Donbass republics, the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, was the result of Washington’s campaign of intimidation against other countries, Chairman of the Russian State Duma (the lower house of parliament) Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky said on Thursday.

"The US uses blackmail and arm-twisting to turn the UN into a branch of its Department of State. The General Assembly’s vote on an anti-Russian resolution rejecting the referendums in the DPR and the LPR (Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics - TASS) and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, was the result of Washington’s campaign to intimidate other countries," Slutsky wrote on Telegram.

The senior lawmaker pointed out that the move to block Russia’s initiative to hold a secret ballot had violated the rules as it would have "reduced the number of those supporting the draft resolution." "Anyway, it’s too early for US President Biden to make triumphant statements, claiming that the world had sent a clear message to Russia. It’s not the world but US hangers-on and those who faced pressure," Slutsky added. The countries that abstained from voting have "more than one-third of the world’s population," the lawmaker emphasized.

The UN General Assembly on Wednesday approved an anti-Russian resolution on the referendums in the Donetsk and the Lugansk People’s Republics, and in the Kherson and the Zaporozhye Regions, as well as on the situation in Ukraine. The resolution was supported by 143 countries, five voted against it and 35 nations abstained. Additionally, the resolution calls for the Ukraine conflict to be resolved through negotiations.

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United States Leonid Slutsky

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