Don’t You Look Away! Safronkov Reprimanded British Permanent Representative in UN Security Council

"Don’t you look away! Why are you looking away?" These are the most quoted words now from the emotional performance of the Russian representative in the UN Security Council. Russia blocked a draft resolution on the chemical attack in the province of Idlib. The position of Moscow was supported by Bolivia. Three countries, among which was China, abstained. The peace process was also discussed. As stated by the Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation Vladimir Safronkov, the opposition is derailing the negotiations in order to win time to gain military advantage. And all this not without the support of external forces, primarily Great Britain. Safronkov, without holding back on his expressions, reprimanded Permanent Representative Matthew Rycroft, addressing him as informal "you". However, it’s difficult to understand when translated into English. Alexander Khristenko reports from New York. The United States were among the authors of the draft resolution on Syria, and, therefore, during the vote, the sea of raised hands supported it. Ten members of the Security Council immediately agreed. China, which voted against six times before, abstained this time. But Russia was against, which meant veto. The draft resolution was rejected because of a dissenting vote by a permanent member of the Security Council. The Western permanent representatives knew from the very beginning that in this form the resolution didn’t suit Moscow and wouldn’t be passed. Nevertheless, they decided to put the draft document to the vote and thereby created a media effect. "Look, Russia once again vetoed when it came to Syria." In reality nobody tried to find an acceptable variant for a compromise and agree on something real. Formally, the Western draft resolution called for an investigation of the alleged chemical attack. In fact, it didn’t even require an expertise on the spot. But the text included a threat to impose sanctions on Damascus and even to use military force against Syria. The representative of Great Britain was especially distressed by Russia's position. Russia's credibility and reputation in the world is poisoned by its toxic alliance with Assad. It preferred to join a bloody, barbaric criminal, and not its international partners. You got scared, you can’t sleep of the mere thought that we'll cooperate with United States. You are afraid of this! Everything is done to ensure that this cooperation is undermined. That's why... Hey, look at me! Don’t you look away! Why are you looking away? That's why you haven’t say anything about the political process today. There is no division into formal and informal "you" in English. Nevertheless, Rycroft, who listened to Safronkov's speech in translation, was noticeably nervous. His attacks on Russia didn’t go unanswered. Russia's initiative in 2013 to seize Syrian chemical weapons turned into a failure, and Russia's pride, the negotiation process in Astana, ended in humiliation. You make insulting demands to the process guarantor in Astana. And what did you do to stop the fire? You are serving the interests of armed groups, many of which are killing Christians and other minorities in the Middle East, perform acts of terrorism in the Orthodox cathedrals on Palm Sunday! Do you care about them? You got very confused in your anti-regime ideas. Don’t you dare to insult Russia again! At the press conference with NATO Secretary General, Donald Trump said that he wasn’t surprised by the results of the voting in the Security Council. Nevertheless, he aims at finding solutions. I'll be speaking with Rex Tillerson in a little while. He will call. I think he had a very successful meeting in Russia. Let's look at the final result. That's the most important thing, not the words. Judging by what I heard, things are going well, better than expected. As we have already said, it would be good if NATO and our country get along with Russia. Now we don’t get along at all. Our relationship is probably at the lowest point of all time. It's been coming to this point for a long time. Let's see what happens. Putin is Russia's leader. Russia is a strong country. We are a very, very strong country. Trump, who gave the order to bomb the Shayrat airbase with Tomahawks, suddenly called on everyone to be patient. Syria made its move as well. Damascus is ready to let the experts of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons come to the airport to show that there aren't and never were any chemical weapons there. Now the ball is in the Western countries' court. It's necessary to guarantee security for the international experts at the site of the alleged chemical attack in Khan Shaykhun. However, this territory is controlled by Al-Nusra and other terrorist groups.