MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ verdict that Crimea and Donbass don’t have the right to self-determination is him pandering to the United States, said Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, and Viktor Medvedchuk, ex-leader of the Opposition Platform for Life party banned in Ukraine, in a joint article they contributed to the International Affairs magazine.

"Today’s UN often acts in the interests of individual countries in the collective West, who are the main donors to the UN. This happened in the situation with the issue of the realization of the right to self-determination of Donbass, Novorossiya and Crimea," the story says.

"If you think about the motivations of the UN Secretary General's statement on the possibility of self-determination of the former Ukrainian territories, it is dictated by one thing - a burning desire to please Western countries and, of course, the United States. The country where the UN headquarters is located."

Medvedev and Medvedchuk said they had previously echoed their view on Guterres’ statement. Moreover, his position was actively discussed in political media and the blogosphere.

"The general conclusion is that the maxims of the UN Secretary General on this issue are untenable and contradict the norms of international law. We believe, however, that this important topic should be subjected to a more detailed legal analysis, since it has a direct bearing on the future of our country, as well as on the future of Ukraine (assuming, of course, that it has any future)," Medvedev and Medvedchuk said.