Point of order by Chargé d'Affaires of the Russian Federation Dmitry Polyanskiy at UNSC briefing on Ukraine
Mr.President,
Before we start, I would like to express our principle-based disagreement with the approach of the Presidency to inviting briefers to take part in this meeting under Rule 39.
Russia requested this meeting on an extremely important and sensitive topic, namely the crackdown of the Kiev regime on Orthodox Christianity in Ukraine, and we did so on July 16. Based on the need for a comprehensive consideration of this subject matter, we proposed three speakers: from the United Nations - a representative of the Alliance of Civilizations, from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Archbishop Gedeon, and from civil society - Ukrainian writer, publicist and public activist Jan Taksyur. The latter two have been persecuted in Ukraine for their political and religious views and attempts to defend the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. They are willing to share first-hand information with UNSC members based on their personal experiences.
Colleagues,
We gave our preliminary consent to having two Security Council meetings on 26 July one right after the other given that our briefers would be allowed to speak out without obstruction.
However, the British Presidency decided unilaterally that one of these briefers would not be given a say at a meeting of the Security Council, citing "a lack of time". I would like to emphasize that this is absolutely far-fetched, because it was the British Presidency itself who decided to stack the meetings one after the other, rather than hold the second one at a different time.
On this false pretext, British censorship befell an Orthodox clergyman, Archbishop Gedeon, who already suffered once after addressing UNSC members. Last time he was banned from entering the European Union, which, by the way, pretends to be the champion of freedom of speech and religion. Now they try to prevent Archbishop Gedeon from addressing the Security Council altogether. This is despite the fact that at the beginning of its "shift" the British Presidency declared a commitment to the protection of civil society representatives as an essential part of its working methods. The Presidency cannot be unaware that earlier in July, we wrote a letter to the Secretary-General and UNSC president detailing the problems that Archbishop Gedeon had with his previous presentation in the Council. Your commitment to the protection of speakers, where has it gone? Or does it apply only to prejudiced pro-Western NGOs?
I have a question to the President of the Council. Why do you insist on the non-participation of an Orthodox clergyman in today's meeting on Orthodox Christianity? What is it that London holds against representatives of that denomination? If next time representatives of, for example, Catholicism or Islam are invited to participate, will you also turn them down citing a lack of time? Would you please answer this one and then I will continue?
Thank you.
Before the procedural vote:
Mr.President,
I do not recall that we have a quota for inviting civil society representatives. Once again, we are acting in exact accordance with the program of your presidency that you proposed and to which you agreed. This includes ensuring the broadest possible participation of civil society representatives. In addition, I remember a lot of situations when several civil society representatives participated in briefings, but I cannot recall a single one when the Presidency offered a choice to those who proposed the briefers, as if we were in a street market or a department store.
Colleagues,
A flagrant situation is unfolding in front of us, with the United Kingdom as President of the Council preventing the participation of a representative of one of the world's key confessions in a UNSC discussion. We cannot allow this to happen. We are putting to a procedural vote the question of the admission of Archbishop Gedeon and asking Council members to vote in favor.
Furthermore, in protest against the British attempt to exclude our briefer from participating in the meeting of the Security Council, even though this candidate fully meets the criteria of Rule 39 of the UNSC provisional rules of procedure, i.e. has competence on today’s agenda item, we will not speak at the meeting which will follow after this one.
I request the Security Council Affairs Division to amend the list of speakers accordingly.
Thank you.
After a procedural vote:
Colleagues,
It is a historic and a very deplorable moment for the Security Council and the international community at large. A representative of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was prevented from taking part in our meeting.
Thus, Western delegations actually expressed solidarity with the repressive policy of the Kiev regime against canonical Orthodox Church. This is clear evidence of their blatant "double standards" in matters of freedom of expression, freedom of religion and all the ideals they generally preach.
Let’s take a moment to look at the hypocrisy of UNSC President, the United Kingdom, which is one of the co-sponsors of a Security Council resolution on human fraternity and religious tolerance. Your decision to abuse the prerogatives of the Presidency and block the participation of an Orthodox clergyman betrays the true feelings of London about all these high ideals and readiness to compromise them easily for the sake of self-serving petty attempts to "prick" Russia.
There is a British saying, “practice what you preach”. We have already lost count of the occasions when London failed to do this.
Thank you.
