Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the Inner City to Wall Street to the United Nations

At UN on Cote D'Ivoire, Russia Remains Firm, Sends Note Taker, Test for Rice?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 8, updated -- On Cote d'Ivoire, after Security Council president Susan Rice and Russian Deputy Permanent Representative Konstantin Dolgov debated for five hours on Tuesday, on Wednesday Russia sent a much lower ranked official to the Council's consultations, described as a Second Secretary.

“The Russians don't have any new instructions,” Inner City Press was told by the Ambassador of a Permanent Five member, whose Mission gushed angrily that “the African members are begging Russia to agree, if Gbagbo doesn't leave there could be violence.”

Whether a belated Press Statement by the UN Security Council would be the determinant in Laurent “le Boulanger” Gbagbo leaving is dubious. But Russia's unmoved position is noteworthy.

Recently China was similarly unmovable on North Korea, stating upfront that it would not agree to the word “condemn” in any statement about the shelling of the Korean island. But, a Western diplomat compared, at least China saved everybody's time. “Dolgov liked to debate,” the diplomat said. “And Susan Rice took the bait.”

Lavrov & Hillary Clinton, Russian note taker not shown

Across First Avenue in the US Mission on Tuesday, State Department spokesman PJ Crowley bragged to foreign correspondents about what the US was accomplishing in the Security Council about Cote d'Ivoire. But what is being accomplished? Watch this site.

Footnotes: Inner City Press has also learned that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon took part in an emergency meeting with the UN Deparment of Safety & Security on December 4 about UNOIC and his close ally, Choi Young-jin. The range of telephone calls Ban may have made to buttress Choi's position is not yet known.

Also, the US Mission has still not answer questions put to it last week and on Tuesday about murder and bombings in Sudan, including a call by the SPLM for a Security Council investigation...

Update of 12:53 p.m. -- the Russian diplomat characterized by her Western Security Council counterparties as a “note taker” is in fact an “expert,” for example on Guinea-Bissau. At Wednesday's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked UN Secretariat spokesman Martin Nesirky if the lack of any correction below Council President Rice's final statement in Tuesday's open meeting meant that the Secretariat had denied Russia's request. Ask the Americans, Nesirky again said, then after being pressed added that he will see if Security Council Affairs has any more to say. Watch this site.