Explanation of vote by First Deputy Permanent Representative Dmitry Polyanskiy after UNSC vote on a draft resolution on the Sudanese sanctions regime
Mr.President,
Russia abstained on a draft resolution on Sudan’s sanctions regime that was put forward by the United States.
We still proceed from the understanding that Sudanese sanctions regime no longer meets the de facto situation in Darfur. What’s more, it impedes plans of the Sudanese government in the area of state-building and socio-economic development of the region. In general terms, we believe that UNSC sanctions need to be perfectly well-grounded and subjected to regular review and modification until fully lifted. Sanctions must never be used as a punitive instrument. The League of Arab States, Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the African Group spoke out in favor of revoking the sanctions.
However authors of the draft resolution only went as far as to make the sanctions regime finite. Besides, they envisioned a renewal not for 12 months, as normal Security Council practice goes, but for 18, until 12 September 2024. What’s more, they suggest revising the sanctions measures on the basis of benchmarks 2 and 3 from Secretary-General’s report dated 31 July 2021, though there is no and has not been any consensus in the Security Council on these benchmarks. We also regret that despite the call of seven UNSC members to continue consultations on the draft, the US delegation decided to force a vote on this resolution.
Insistent attempts to preserve the Sudanese sanctions regime and sabotage prior UNSC decisions regarding the benchmarks, as well as disregard for the positions of half of the members of the Council (African in the first place) did not come as a surprise to us, but only strengthened our view that all this is being done in the narrow national interests of Western countries, who want to continue exerting political pressure on Sudan.
Thank you.
