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West’s refusal to condemn attack on Russian Embassy in Kiev double standards — diplomat

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov says attacks on embassies must be condemned irrespective of any other circumstances
Saturday's attack on the Russian Embassy in Kiev (archive) ITAR-TASS/Maxim Nikitin
Saturday's attack on the Russian Embassy in Kiev (archive)
© ITAR-TASS/Maxim Nikitin

MOSCOW, June 16. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s high-ranking diplomat said Western partners’ refusal to condemn the attack on the Russian Embassy in Kiev is the policy of double standards.

“We can say the Western partners demonstrated the policy of double standards in the UN Security Council,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told ITAR-TASS on Monday.

“The Western partners refused to condemn what was rather evident. The international community denounced such facts in other cases,” he said.

Russia proposed to adopt a statement for the press to denounce the attack on the Russian Embassy.

The Russian delegation to the UN “prepared a standard text". "But we failed to coordinate the text because of our Western partners”, Gatilov said. “The Western partners sought to link the incident to the situation in Ukraine. But this has no relation to the attack on the Russian Embassy,” he said.

“Such actions must be condemned irrespective of any other circumstances,” Gatilov said. “We’re surprised at the Western partners’ position because in similar cases the UN Security Council reacted immediately and condemned them (attacks on embassies),” he said.

He recalled that in September 2012 the US consulate in Libya had been attacked. The UN Security Council condemned the attack, Gatilov said. The June 14 incident “is a gross violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations”, he said.

“No one should doubt that the international community must condemn aggressive actions,” Gatilov said. “We can say the Western partners demonstrated the policy of double standards in the UN Security Council,” Gatilov said.