Vasily Nebenzya, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, who previously told stories about fighting mosquitoes from high tribunes, has distinguished himself with a new scandalous statement at a meeting of the Security Council. Now he threatens Ukraine with war. Obviously, the Russian official forgot that the Kremlin carried out this mission a long time ago on February 24, with a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Nebenzya made a rather strange and unexpected speech on December 6 at a meeting of the UN Security Council. According to him, the goals of the so-called “special operation” will allegedly be fulfilled in any case. Nebenzya sees such a goal as turning Ukraine into a “good-neighborly state from which there will be no threat to Russia.” Thus, it turns out that the Russians just want to have good neighbors. But, the Kremlin achieves this goal not by peaceful and kind proposals, but by throwing missiles at Ukraine, killing its citizens, annexing its territories and erasing towns and villages from the face of the earth.
Russia no longer hides its aggressive plans and openly declares its intentions to continue killing civilians in Ukraine. With each such statement and demarche, the Russians confirm their status as a terrorist country. The negative effect for Russia from the status of a terrorist country is obvious. This status will have an impact on reputation, because Russia will not be able to be a sponsor and partner of many events and, thus, will lose a key element of influence on foreign elites. This will also become a clear marker for other states that it is not necessary to have any reputational relations with a terrorist country at all. The more countries recognize the Russian Federation as a terrorist entity, the greater the effect will be. For example, this will allow, after the creation of a special international tribunal, to bring to justice not only the perpetrators of war crimes of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, but also the RF’s political leadership. In addition to the international tribunal, such recognition will help with the reparations from Russia for the damage to Ukraine.
The most powerful “peaceful” blow to the aggressor country of the Russian Federation was the sanctions policy of the international community. According to experts, in 2022 Russia experienced the largest sanctions blow in its history. However, already in 2023, the situation in the economy may deteriorate significantly. Among the reasons: panic due to a new waves of mobilization, a drop in export earnings and the beginning of a global economic downturn. In addition, restrictions on oil sales will also play a role. A large budget deficit in 2023 is almost inevitable. Its growth may be further aggravated by the strengthening of sanctions and the fall in oil prices. But the No. 1 terrorist country in the world deserves maximum sanctions, which will still be able to finally undermine the Russian economy and stop Russian aggression.