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By Matthew Russell Lee, Photos, speech

UNITED NATIONS, September 22 – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held a press conference at the UN on Friday and not a word of it had to do with the UN itself, much less reforming it. He passed easily from one country situation to another, even if he did mix up the long time reporters of AP and Reuters (retired). He told a good story about France's then foreign minister Laurent Fabius begging for his support to fight forces in Mali to whom France had air-dropped weapons in Libya's Nafusa mountains. But on reform - the Department of Political Affairs, the Secretariat's power grab of UN funds and programs and country teams, nothing. Inner City Press has waited to report on a blistering - but apparently unsupported from Moscow - speech by Russian deputy ambassador Sergey Kononuchenko, and now puts it online here. It characterizes the UN Secretariat's moves as a power grab. But as with the humanitarian situation in Yemen, an on-again, off-again issue with Russia, what is the level of commitment to follow through? We'll be asking, when we can. Watch this site. Lavrov met Thursday evening with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and gave him a gift.  Present on the UN side was Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, with whom Inner City Press spoke nearly an hour later on the way down in the elevator. Before the Guterres and Lavrov shook hands, Lavrov asked why there were two blue UN flags behind them, and not a Russian one. But nations' flags are displayed by the UN only for heads of state; Lavrov laughed. Video here. Alamy photos here. The meeting went long and left Bangladesh' Sheikh Hasina waiting. But the stakes were and are high - not that one could tell from the generic read-out the UN later issued: "Today, the Secretary-General met with H.E. Mr. Sergey Lavrov, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. They exchanged views both on the United Nations reform and on international situations, in particular Syria, the wider Middle East, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. They also discussed peace and security issues in Europe, including with regard to Ukraine." (Earlier on September 21 Inner City Press asked Ukraine's foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin if he'd spoken with China; he answered that "no one" supports Russia's proposal for peacekeepers in Ukraine, which didn't really answer the question.) Guterres had paced around waiting for Lavrov, and made a point of indicating that he could write as long as he wanted in the UN's visitors' book. (To Uzbekistan's president, as Inner City Press reported, Guterres showed his preference at the end of the day, and after a long Paraguay signing, for just a signature). Ambassador Nebenzia and his Deputy were there, as well as spokesperson Maria Zakharova.... Back on September 19 Guterres had two final grip and grin sessions at day's end. The first was Paraguay's President Horacio Manuel Cartes Jara, who spent a long time writing in the UN's visitors' book, followed by a short meeting. Alamy photos here. Next and last was Uzbekistan's President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Guterres said pointedly, just the signature. But something was lost in translation: he still started writing. Alamy photos here. Then the Press was ushered out. Alreay on the way in before the Paraguay photo op, the Media Entrance on 47th Street was locked. The questions about double standards of media access, including retaliatory restrictions still in place on the investigative Press while no-show, no-question state media like Egypt's Akhbar al Yom have full access have yet to be answered by the official now responsible, Alison Smale. According to a photographer allowed into the smaller "G-200" room, Smale was there to greet "her" Prime Minister, Theresa May. The previous day, Guterres was to have met Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, trying to get Presidential age limits in his country removed, at 4:40 pm on September 18. Inner City Press went, with UN Security, to the 27th floor for the photo op. But moment before, the Security said to change the flag from Uganda to Denmark, or really just UN blue. Then they said to switch it to South Africa for Jacob Zuma. This was attributed to New York City traffic. Alamy photos here. UN Department of Political Affairs official Taye Brook Zerihoun, there for the Uganda meeting, stayed on as he has in his post. Would he stay for Denmark, or South Korea's Moon? Periscope video here. When Italy's Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano took media questions at the UN on September 18, they were all in Italian except for a final chosen question about Donald Trump. Inner City Press insisted and asked, in English, if Italy funds militia in Libya to detain migrants and refugees. Alfano's answer was in Italian, but a handler from the Italian Mission offered a translation: that Italy has denied it. So what due diligence does Italy do, over the funds it gives to the UN-propped up government in Libya? We'll have more on this. Alamy photos here. When US President Donald Trump gave his UN reform speech on September 18, he noted that UN staff have doubled since 2000, but we haven't seen the results. He could have said more: what HAS been seen includes inaction on mass killings in Sri Lanka and Yemen, Myanmar and Cameroon. Not mentioned in Secretary General Antonio Guterres' speech, nor in his answers the two times Inner City Press has asked him, is the UN bribery guilty verdicts in the case of Ng Lap Seng / John Ashe. The UN was shown, only this summer, to be for sale. And nothing has changed. As UN General Assembly week started up on Sunday, the US announced that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would meet with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov at 9 pm, at Russia's Mission to the UN. Inner City Press after asking Cote d'Ivoire president Alassane Ouattara a question about Myanmar - without answer - biked up to that Mission on 67th Street. There in the half light were dozens of reporters and photographers, waiting for Tillerson to leave. In the street were US body guards with machine guns. Tillerson emerged and said nothing, driving away. Video here. Most of the Western wire service correspondents, one a photographer who'd been at the UN photo op with Ouattara but not the stakeout with Ivorian media, turned and left. Then the spokesman for Lavrov, and before him for now deceased Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, emerged and briefed in Russia. Inner City Press was informed second hard that she said the topics had been Syria, Ukraine and Minsk implementation, and “North Africa.” Later the US State Department said, “U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met this evening in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. The two recommitted to deconflicting military operations in Syria, reducing the violence, and creating the conditions for the Geneva process to move forward, pursuant to United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254.” So what about North Africa? Peacekeepers in Ukraine? Watch this site.

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