Overall, the General Assembly was tense, but lively. Our correspondent in New York, Valentin Bogdanov, will continue the topic.
For the first time in UN history, right from the podium came threats to destroy a country, in this case, North Korea from Donald Trump, who didn't realize that he was opening Pandora's box. When it was the turn for the North Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs to speak, a nuclear hammer of justice came out of this box. This what Ri Yong-ho called the counter-threat.
- Trump tried to humiliate my country's commander-in chief. He addressed him as "some missile". But he made a mistake. By this outburst, he made a visit from our missiles to the US unavoidable. Trump is on a suicide path. In case innocent Americans suffer because of him, only Trump will be held fully responsible.
Trump shouldn't act all boss-like in the UN. Even those who didn't sign the US Department of State's UN Reform, reminded him of that. It wasn't just Russia and China who voted against Trump's reform, it was also France, a close ally.
During this General Assembly, Emmanuel Macron was full of surprises.
- I think Russia is a partner, we can't not work with Russia. We can't resolve the Syrian issue without Russia. It's hard to resolve the North Korean issue without Russia. Russia deserves respect for its place in the world, its history, and for our relationship. If you want the international system to work, you need to include Russia.
Before the General Assembly, Russia presented a resolution project at the UNSC, about sending a UN contingent to Donbass. The target was to guard OSCE on the contact line.
The Russian idea fully complies with the principles of the world organization. Sergey Lavrov noted this at the special meeting on peacekeeping. Without any reasons, Poroshenko wants the UN peacekeepers to be located on the Russian-Ukrainian border.
- The majority of the General Assembly understand that placing peacemakers by the Russian border is just another trick from Ukraine to show Russia's role as an aggressor. In reality, the right thing to do is to make UN peacekeepers guard the monitoring mission from the OSCE.
They just need to be there to solve security issues.
However, Poroshenko has a long way to go until he reaches Trump's fantasy levels. During his lunch with African representatives, during the General Assembly, he located a whole new country on their map, "Nambia." And he did it twice.
- I'm greatly honored to have this lunch with leaders from Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, "Nambia," Nigeria, Uganda, Senegal, and South Africa.
Trump probably meant Namibia, but his mistake flew all over the web, becoming the main meme of the 72nd General Assembly.
- If you're a US President, you can call them whatever you like. Nambia, Angoga, Zimbubwe, Butswalala. I want to remind you that he actually met with the African leaders. I suggest the President to check his favorite app, since this is what people write on Twitter: "Nambia, the world's top producer of covfefe". "They have a great harvest of covfefe this year." "Tomorrow, Kellyanne Conway will insist "Nambia" is real. By November it will be in Texas social studies textbooks". "Why did Barack Obama never visit Nambia?" "Nambia is truly beautiful this time of year. Everyone should visit at least once in their lives. "Just take Psilocybin to get there".
Nambia on CNN is just to get you started. US media's main news is still about the alleged involvement of Russia in the election. To make sure plain Americans stay on the hook, even without any proof, they now have actor Freeman joining them. The master of heartfelt monologues knows how to be convincing.
- We need our President to sit at his desk in the Oval office and say, dear Americans, during the election we were attacked by the Russian government.
Freeman joined the Committee to Investigate Russia. Other roles in there are also impressive. Retired CIA agents, former National Intelligence Director, James Clapper. The head of the Committee is Rob Reiner, who invited the Hollywood star. Why did Reiner decide to mess with Russia, not China, for instance? They are more frequently mentioned in the US, when it comes to cyber attacks. We can't explain.
- You condone the regime that really broke the system, it stole military and industrial secrets, which really harmed our country. But you don't say anything until Hillary Clinton's defeat. Then you declare to be at war with Russia. So now you know why some of us say, wait, Rob Reiner, where were you with China? Why do you sell movies over there?
- I'm not ignoring China's actions.
- Sure you are. So you, Hollywood guys, sell your movies there and allow them to be censored to make money. And they break in.
- I personally didn't do it, I just...
- Oh come on, everyone who sells movies to China does it. You should know best. Stop making fools out of us.
- Tucker, here's the difference. Chinese did some things, but so did we. And what we did was way worse.
- So that's what it is. We can't judge them, but we can judge Russia. Why? This is ridiculous.
Maybe even the head of Facebook (запрещена в РФ), who claims this week, that some Russian bots, right during the US presidential campaign, bought political ads in the US, first figured out how many followers he has in Russia. The topic of Moscow's digital hand couldn't be surpassed by the US journalists on Sergey Lavrov's press conference.
- In Soviet Union, there was this General Attorney Andrey Vyshinsky. His court cases took him no more than 2 days. He used to say that confession was the mother of all proof. Modern American figures, who blow up this campaign, went further than Andrey Vyshinsky. For them, it's not confession, but an accusation that is the mother of all proof. So the defendant doesn't even need to confess. I can't call it anything else. This isn't normal. This stands in the way of a healthy relationship between us. We've never asked to be each other's allies. However, we were allies. We fought some successful battles.
This could've happened in Syria, where, thanks to Russia, a counter-terrorist operation is coming to an end. Meanwhile, in Washington, they still try to play two parallel games. For instance, they get in the way of the Syrian army in Deir-ez-Zor. Lavrov reminded the US one more time, who's welcome in Syria, and who's not.
- There is legitimate presence, which is executed after a government's official invitation, of the country that is a member of the UN. Then, there's illegitimate presence, like the presence of the American-led coalition. This includes the special forces from a whole series of foreign countries, who didn't get invited to the Syrian Arab Republic, but who went there anyway, all so that they can direct the actions of the opposition. Also... the first step after terrorism is over with, I'm sure of it, will be removing all illegitimate presences from Syria.
Sergey Lavrov has attended dozens of bilateral meetings. Russian room of delegations saw such guests, as Great Britain's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Boris Johnson, and NATO General Secretary, Jens Stoltenberg.
- Don't you think that this General Assembly was somewhat significant over the past 3 years, and the West finally realized they hit rock bottom with Russia and it's time to go back to normal cooperation?
- I wouldn't call this General Assembly crucial. There was the same amount of meetings as over the past years. There weren't a lot of changes in the conversations, either. Because last year, and the year before that, when we had bilateral meetings with my colleagues, everyone said this situation isn't normal. It needs to be changed. Maybe, you are right. Right now it's more viable. But I wouldn't say that I heard that the West would stop playing these sanction games, or they'd stop ignoring our mutual cooperation interests. I wouldn't say that. I think it will come eventually. We've never tried to convince our western partners to remove the sanctions, offering something in return. Never! I think life will make them drop this dead-end strategy.
However, Russia isn't planning to just sit and wait. Obama's legacy isn't just the bilateral relationship that has almost hit rock bottom. It's also Russian diplomatic residences, taken over by the US, in spite of all international regulations. They keep trying to repossess it with Trump, too.
According to the Russian ambassador in Washington, as he said in the UN, our diplomats are preparing a respective suit for the US. Valentin Bogdanov, Ivan Utkin, Denis Lisitsyn, and Georgy Korolev. Vesti Weekly, from New York.
