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Russia urges UN Security Council expansion to counter Western dominance

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting of President Vladimir Putin with a delegation of African leaders in Saint Petersburg, Russia, June 17, 2023. (Via Reuters)

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of Russia has called for the expansion of the United Nations Security Council to include more non-Western countries.

Lavrov told a press briefing on Friday an expansion of the 15-member Council would give more representation to Asian, African and Latin American countries in the face of the Western dominance.

"A majority of the world does not want to live according to Western rules," the top Russian diplomat said.

In recent years, calls have grown for reforms in the Security Council, a key decision-making body of the UN.

Regional players such as Iran, Brazil, Germany, India, Japan and South Africa have no seat within the Security Council.

Britain and France are permanent members with veto power for no other reason than that they were on the winning side in the Second World War.

Many believe the five permanent members of the Security Council, which are all nuclear powers, have manifested a sort of exclusive club, allowing for their powers to go unchecked.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Lavrov said the West, especially the United States, had launched a fierce campaign to prevent Russia and China from growing into independent powers in a multi-polar world.

Lavrov said in order to achieve that objective, the West has for many years been waging a war against Russia through what he called the Anglo-Saxon Nazi regime in Kiev. The Kremlin uses the term Anglo-Saxons to refer to the United States and Britain.

The de-militarization and de-Nazification of Ukraine were Russia's two stated reasons for launching the war in Ukraine last year. 

Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev recently accused the West of plotting to “destroy and dismember” Russia, saying the bloc was walking in the footsteps of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the US and its Western allies have been providing Kiev with military equipment worth tens of billions of dollars. The supplied arms include rocket systems, drones, tanks and armored vehicles and communication systems as reports also indicate a probable supply of F-16 fighter jets.  

Long-range attack drones have been also added to the list of Western weapons supplied to the Ukrainian forces fighting against Russian troops.

Russia has repeatedly said that the collective Western nations are engaged in a proxy war with Russia over Ukraine, warning that the conflict could escalate into a much bigger fight.


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