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Guterres' position on Donbass undermines UN foundations — deputy

Leader of the LDPR Party Leonid Slutsky called the UN Secretary General's selective approach an extremely dangerous precedent

MOSCOW, January 29. /TASS/. The statement by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres that the right to self-determination does not apply to Crimea and Donbass undermines the foundations of the organization, said Leonid Slutsky, the head of the State Duma’s committee on international affairs and leader of the LDPR Party.

"The selective approach of the office of legal affairs and the position of the secretary general of the organization undermine its very foundations. According to the 'right of the strong,' they are trying to twist international law like a drawbar. Segregation based on the principle of 'exclusivity' is an extremely dangerous precedent for the United Nations. I hope its leadership understands the possible consequences," Slutsky wrote on Telegram.

He said that the UN charter "guarantees the equality of all sovereign nations without exception," including in the issue of the right to self-determination. "The UN charter is not a menu for choice," the parliamentarian said.

Earlier, the UN secretary general, responding to a question from TASS, said that the UN secretariat had concluded that the right of peoples to self-determination was inapplicable to Crimea and Donbass. According to him, the world organization's secretariat believes in these situations that "the principle of territorial integrity prevails" over the right of self-determination of peoples.

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Foreign policy Antonio Guterres

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