António Guterres
UN Secretary-General antónio Guterres, stating the organization’s commitment to the principle of territorial integrity, in fact, approved the affiliation of Crimea to Russia. This opinion was expressed by the Deputy of state Duma Ruslan Balbec in an interview with “Tape.ru” on Thursday, February 16.
“The new UN Secretary-General so long talked about our commitment to international law and the territorial integrity of countries — UN members (one of which is Russia) that the Western community is duty bound to stop any discussion about the return of Crimea to Ukraine”, — said the MP.
According to Balbec, the new Secretary General of the organization it was hard to recognize the legitimacy of the reunification of the Peninsula with Russia. “To some extent it is coming out”, — he stressed.
Earlier on Thursday, Italian newspaper La Stampa published an interview with Guterres, which he calls one of the fundamental principles of the UN territorial integrity of its member countries. RIA Novosti said the administrative head of the international community outlined the principles that should be used in the Crimea. “Thus the UN Secretary General answered the question, whether it considers valid the presence of Russia on the Crimean Peninsula”, — writes the Agency.
February 8, Crimean Tatar public organization “kyrym birligi” called on the UN to recognize the occurrence of the Peninsula in structure of Russia the relevant rules of international law and to abolish imposed by the West anti-Russian sanctions.
Crimea reunited with Russia in March 2014 following a referendum. Kiev does not recognize the election results. Moscow insists that the referendum was carried out in accordance with all norms of international law.