UNITED
NATIONS — In the first barometer of global condemnation of Russia’s
annexation of Crimea, Ukraine and its Western backers persuaded a large
majority of countries in the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday
to dismiss the annexation as illegal, even as Russia sought to rally
world support for the idea of self-determination.
The resolution,
proposed by Ukraine and backed by the United States and the European
Union, represented the latest effort to isolate President Vladimir V.
Putin of Russia over the annexation, which followed a March 16
referendum in the peninsula that has been internationally regarded as
Ukrainian territory.
The
resolution garnered 100 votes in favor, 11 votes against, with 58
abstentions. The two-page text does not identify Russia by name, but
describes the referendum as “having no validity” and calls on countries
not to recognize the redrawing of Ukraine’s borders.
Ukraine’s
acting foreign minister, Andriy Deshchytsia, called Russia’s actions “a
direct violation of the United Nations Charter.”
Russia
said Crimea should not have been part of Ukraine anyway and appealed to
another element in United Nations principles: the right of Crimeans to
self-determination.
That
assertion was disputed by Samantha Power, the United States ambassador,
in the debate that preceded the vote. Coercion cannot be the means to
self-determination, she argued. “The chaos that would ensue is not a
world that any of us can afford,” she said.
The
most poignant argument came from Costa Rica. Small states have only the
power of international law “to defend our sovereignty,” its ambassador,
Eduardo Ulibarri, said. The resolution proposed by Ukraine, he said,
would help to reaffirm that power.
The
resolution was regarded as an important pressure point on Russia by the
United States and European Union, which had been lobbying intensely for
its passage. “This is critical for the U.S.-Europe strategy to isolate
Putin and condemn him internationally for Russia’s violation of the U.N.
Charter in invading Crimea,” said Nicholas R. Burns, a former American
diplomat in the Bush administration.
Although
the resolution has no enforcement power, it is symbolically significant
in the history of General Assembly votes. The United States has rarely
corralled a majority of General Assembly members, especially after the
American-led invasion of Iraq more than a decade ago.
Mr.
Burns added: “It is also, indirectly, a warning to Putin to not go
further in invading either Eastern Ukraine or Moldova or else face even
greater global criticism.”
Source:nytimes.com
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