LAVROV - Alexander Stubb wants to be “more Ukrainian” than the Ukrainians themselves - SUB

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Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to media questions following the High-Level Week of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly, New York, September 28, 2024.
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Question: Much has been said at this General Assembly about the reform of the UN. President of Finland Alexander Stubb tried to give this some thought and suggested excluding Russia from the UN Security Council. Is this actually possible? What should our reaction be?

Sergey Lavrov: These “hot-tempered Finnish guys” are a special kind of people.

I knew Alexander Stubb well when he was the Foreign Affairs Minister. Shortly after the end of the five-day war, which Mikhail Saakashvili unleashed in South Ossetia against Russian peacekeepers, Stubb visited Tbilisi and went to Moscow on his way back. We sat down together, just the two of us face-to-face, to prepare for the talks with our experts, and he shared some of the impressions of his meeting with Saakashvili. He actually used profanities. Well, he called him a “lunatic,” and I think you can guess what adjective went with it. I urged him to tell everyone what the man was like, but he said no.

I could quote more stories from Scandinavian folklore. On a more serious note, I am more surprised by something else. Alexander Stubb wants to be “more Ukrainian” than the Ukrainians themselves. I know that Kiev representatives never stop questioning the Russian Federation’s legitimacy, pointing out that the UN Charter says the USSR. I would like to note that the Charter also says the Republic of China and not the People’s Republic of China. Because that is what it was when the UN was created, when Taiwan represented China. When the People’s Republic of China restored its rights, and when Russia, as the successor of the Soviet Union, joined the Security Council, they decided they were not going to change it because it was clear anyway.

As I said, I was more surprised when UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke about the reform of the UN Security Council, and said that Europe was overrepresented, because France, the UK and the Russian Federation are among the permanent members. When I met with him yesterday, I asked him if he really believed that we were in the same package with London and Paris. He said, well, what else are you? This interpretation of the geopolitical picture of the world makes one think, because that was the UN Secretary-General speaking.