(EDM) Russian President Vladimir Putin opted not to attend this year’s United Nations General Assembly, in New York City; but he nevertheless kept up the pretense of the wise statesman among bickering politicians. Every opening to present Russia as a responsible stakeholder in global affairs was keenly exploited. And in fact, United States President Donald Trump created many of those openings in the first place. Moscow indifferently shrugged off Trump’s appeal for a swift reform of the UN bureaucracy as mere rhetoric (RIA Novosti, September 19). But at the same time, this US proposal provided Moscow with opportunity to establish that any step in reforming the notoriously inefficient UN system can be taken only with Russia’s consent, which will be difficult to obtain (Fontanka.ru, September 21). After the US President’s speech to the UN General Assembly, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov praised Trump for placing the emphasis on the issue of sovereignty, which indeed has been one of the key notions in Russia’s foreign policy discourse. But at the same time, Lavrov confidently asserted that there would be no UN sanctions against Venezuela (Kommersant, September 21). […]
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