UN General Assembly meetingUN, Feb 18Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin told Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the UN Sergei Kyslitsa how Russia's status differs from Ukraine's status in this organization in relation to the USSR. as a permanent member. Earlier, he already stated that Russia allegedly cannot document its rights to a seat in the UN Security Council, since after the collapse of the USSR it did not go through the procedure for joining the organization.
"Not for the first time, representatives of different countries, including Ukraine, are trying to assert themselves through speculation on the legality of Russia's presence in the Security Council. The calculation is understandable — it is for an inexperienced audience far from knowledge of international law", Vershinin said at a meeting of the Security Council.
The diplomat wondered whether Ukraine had passed the procedure for joining the UN. «Or in your person we are still dealing with the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic,» he asked. became a successor state, that is, it is a new state entity,» Vershinin pointed out.The UN spoke about the words of the permanent representative of Ukraine about Russia's membership in the Security Council In the case of a successor state, international rights and obligations are transferred from the predecessor state to the successor state, that is, from one subject of international law to another. In the case of a successor state, the implementation of international obligations is automatically continued by the same state subject to international law, but with a different name. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics has been the original member of the United Nations since October 24, 1945. At the end of 1991, the then President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, sent a letter to the UN Secretary General, in which he informed that the Russian Federation would continue the membership of the USSR in the Security Council and other bodies with the support of the CIS states. In this regard, the president asked to use the name «Russian Federation» instead of «USSR». He also said that Russia retains all responsibility for its rights and obligations of the USSR in accordance with the UN Charter. Yeltsin's appeal was based on the decision of the member states of the newly formed CIS, which, at a meeting in Alma-Ata, documented their readiness to see Russia as the successor of the USSR, and themselves as full members of the UN. Members of the UN Security Council were informed about the contents of the letter on the same day, not a single none of them made any comments on this issue.