Envoy: Washington sees no way to deprive Russia of permanent seat in UN Security Council

The US administration doesn’t see the possibility of depriving Russia of the status of a permanent member of the UN Security Council, but will try to isolate the Russian Federation, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in an interview with PBC channel, Report informs.

“Russia is a Permanent Member of the Security Council, but their permanent membership does not give them a pass to do the kinds of aggression and take the kinds of actions that they have taken against the Ukrainian people, and that’s why with their veto power we’ve been able to push back. They can’t veto condemnation, they can’t veto our voices, and they can’t veto the isolation that they are feeling. And I’m very aware and very sympathetic to the Ukrainian president’s view that the Council has been, in his view, slow to act, but we have been taking pretty aggressive actions against the Russians since this started, and we will continue to do that,” she said.

“I’m also aware of their request to re-look at Russia’s permanent seat on the Security Council. But again, the Russians have the permanent seat, and I don’t see at the moment that there will be any changes in that, but we will continue in our efforts to isolate them,” she added.

“The Russians, like all of us, know the seriousness of a nuclear attack, whatever nature that – or form that might come in. And they know the seriousness of making these kinds of threats. So we’re hopeful that it is just that, it’s bluster, but we know what Putin is capable of. They have threatened to use nuclear weapons before. They’ve also used false flag accusations against the United States and the Ukrainians in terms of use of chemical weapons, and we know that they are capable of using chemical weapons. They’ve used them on their own people; they’ve used them in Syria.

So we have to take the threat seriously. And it’s a serious threat particularly for a Permanent Member of the Security Council to make such a threat, and we will respond and hold them accountable,” she noted.