US wants to turn UN into State Department branch & turn it against Russia, says Kremlin

Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the Russian State Duma's Foreign Affairs Committee has said that the US wants to turn the UN into a branch of the US State Department and use the UN against Russia. The State Department is America's foreign affairs ministry. Whereas the UN is a multilateral organisation that emerged after the 2nd World War, the purpose of the multilateral organisation is to ensure the world does not witness a World War again.  

Leonid Slutsky was criticising the United Nations General Assembly's resolution which termed Russia's annexation of four Ukrainian provinces illegal. A majority of nations voted in favour of the resolution and only four nations other than Russia opposed the resolution. India, China and 33 other nations abstained. "The US uses blackmail and arm-twisting to turn the UN into a branch of its Department of State. The General Assembly’s vote on an anti-Russian resolution rejecting the referendums in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, was the result of Washington’s campaign to intimidate other countries," said Leonid Slutsky, as per a report by Russian State news agency TASS.

Russia wanted a secret ballot 

The Russian lawmaker claimed that America blocked Russia's attempt to hold a secret ballot to determine which nations are in favour of the resolution and which nations are against the resolution. The secret ballot would have "reduced the number of those supporting the draft resolution," the Russian lawmaker said. "Anyway, it’s too early for US President Biden to make triumphant statements, claiming that the world had sent a clear message to Russia. It’s not the world but US hangers-on and those who faced pressure. More than one-third of the world’s population," abstained from voting in favour of the resolution, he added. 

America's reaction to the resolution 

The United Nations General Assembly resolution was supported by 143 countries. 5 countries voted against the resolution and 35 nations abstained from the vote. US President Joe Biden hailed the resolution, as per reports from The Guardian. He said that the resolution sends a clear message to Russia that it cannot erase a sovereign nation from the world's map. The Ukrainian President also welcomed the resolution and said that he is grateful. Several Western nations have dismissed the referendum carried out by Russia in the four regions as a 'farce'.