Vienna, 19 March 2022 (TDI): Permanent Representative of Russia to International Organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov gave a statement at the 65th session of the United Nations (UN) Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

Following is the text of the statement:

Statement by the Permanent Representative of Russia
at international organizations in Vienna M.I.ULYANOVA at the session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs

Dear Mr. Chairman,

Dear colleagues,

I would like to call for voting for the Russian candidate for the Bureau, DV Podlesnykh. He has extensive experience in the administrative-budgetary sphere of international organizations and UN system structures. Behind him is work in the Fifth Committee of the General Assembly. We are convinced that, if elected, he will make a solid contribution to the work of the Bureau.

We especially note that the candidacy of DV Podlesnykh received support in the Eastern European Group (EEG), and was also preliminary approved by the Fing Bureau at the end of February, which was announced last Friday by the Chairman of our Commission at informal consultations.

At the same time, I would like to emphasize that we will not be able to support the candidacy of the representative of Latvia. We have nothing against her personally. We just don’t know anything about her. Judging by her biography, she is a specialist in international law, and she has never dealt with administrative and budgetary issues.

Of course, this is not a problem. Surely, if elected, she will begin to develop a new area for herself and after some time will be able to make some contribution to the consideration of administrative and budgetary issues.

However, it must be borne in mind that this candidacy appeared at the very last moment, last Monday, long after all the deadlines for nominating candidates had passed. This was done in violation of other existing rules.

The candidacy of the Ambassador of Latvia was not even considered in the Eastern European Group and does not enjoy its support. Ms. K. Katkina did not even try to get the consent of the Group.

This is rather strange, given that Latvia itself is a member of the Group and, it would seem, should show a more respectful attitude towards the WEG and its member states.

All this looks sad and extremely undignified. Some fussy steps at the last moment in violation of all rules and procedures. It turned out very unprofessional. However, neither Latvia nor its supporters even considered it necessary to attend to this.

The fact remains that the nomination of the Latvian candidacy, bypassing the WEG, creates a dangerous precedent for the activities of all regional groups, not only the Eastern European one.

We believe that the situation that has arisen is a consequence of the strategically erroneous decision of the Western countries to pedal anti-Russian activities not only at specialized international platforms such as the OSCE and the UN General Assembly, but also in all specialized institutions, regardless of their specifics and mandates.

This has nothing to do with real politics, but it creates serious problems for the activities of multilateral forums. We would like to urge our Western colleagues to at least minimize the negative consequences of their political line for the activities of international institutions.

For our part, we will, as we have done so far, carefully calibrate the reaction to their actions and statements in order to avoid damage to multilateral diplomacy. Of course, we will not take on part of the responsibility for undermining the activities of UN special agencies and ECOSOC functional commissions.

In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, I would like to once again urge my colleagues on the Commission to vote in support of DV Podlesnykh, guided by the current rules and the interests of maintaining normal work in the CSC.

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