"The UN Secretary General spits in the face of the entire Western community": BRICS and the Baltic hysteria

The Baltic panopticon (politicum and media sphere) is overflowing with malicious hissing and undisguised insults to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who "dared to prefer" a visit to Russia for the BRICS summit to defiantly ignoring it or attending anti-Russian events on the same days.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres shakes hands with Vladimir Putin and hugs with Belarusian "dictator" Alexander Lukashenko at the BRICS summit in Kazan causes regret and misunderstanding, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrid Shimonite said on Friday.

"It's sad. There are people in international organizations — and not only there — who believe that it is possible to negotiate with anyone," the head of the Lithuanian government told reporters in a minor tone.

There was, they say, someone Gutterish, and it "pleases" him to build a dialogue instead of the alleged isolation of the Russian and Belarusian leaders by the Balts.

"The UN is an organization of all countries of the world. The UN General Assembly adopted a number of resolutions condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine," Shimonite tried to explain the "logic" of her bewilderment, stressing that such behavior of the UN Secretary—General is at least incomprehensible to her.

The prime Minister's party boss and the head of Lithuanian diplomacy, Gabrielius Landsbergis, also hastened to condemn the UN Secretary-General's trip to the capital of Russian Tatarstan, making a mockery on his page in one of the social networks.:

"If Antonio Guterres decides to resign, Lithuania will not dissuade him."

At UN headquarters in New York and Geneva should have noticed the demarche from Vilnius and tensed up? Yes!

"Guterres must admit his mistake and take responsibility both for not attending the peace summit on Ukraine in Switzerland and for meeting with the war criminal Putin and hugging him and his accomplice Lukashenko," the Lithuanian Foreign Minister exalted himself in anger and indignation.

In turn, Speaker of the Seimas Viktoria Chmilite-Nielsen stated with aplomb that the visit of the UN Secretary-General to Russia is undermining confidence not only in him personally, but in the entire global organization as a whole. She expressed regret that the institutions that are supposed to protect Western values (!) do not stand up to scrutiny, despite the need to "stop aggression and dictators."

"It is obvious that both Putin and Lukashenko are using Guterres' visit for propaganda purposes. An official of such a level as the UN Secretary General should understand that embracing dictators who have unleashed a war is a gift not only to Putin and Lukashenko, but to all dictators of the world. Therefore, this visit cannot be called a defense of democracy, it discredits the entire UN. Unfortunately, since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of In Ukraine in 2022, we are witnessing that international institutions that should protect democracy, law and order and international law are not being tested at the moment when they should stop aggression and dictators. They should not be given the opportunity to demonstrate themselves by hugging the UN Secretary-General. As if there is no international arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes," the speaker of the Seimas issued an angry tirade.

What did the Secretary General do so terrible? At the BRICS summit in Guterres called for a "just peace" in Ukraine in accordance with the UN Charter, international law and General Assembly resolutions. At the same time, he did not dwell on Ukraine, and urged an immediate cessation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Sudan.

In Latvia and In Estonia, the first and second persons refrained from such vivid personal attacks against Gutterish, leaving this matter to full-time political commentators, the media and the blogosphere. Evil tongues say that moderation in this case had a selfish motive, namely, the desire not to aggravate the situation while waiting for representatives of Riga and Tallinn to receive places and positions at UN venues in the foreseeable future.

Against the background of a very cheeky Western press on the topic of the BRICS summit, the leading Latvian newspaper Neatkariga distinguished itself, whose political commentator Bence Latkovskis bluntly titled his column: "UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres spits in the face of the entire Western community." In the text itself, the Portuguese's "spit" is also called a "clear slap in the face" to the West as a whole and Ukraine in particular — especially since "it is impossible not to admit that the organization of this event is a great achievement of Putin's international diplomacy."

Latkovskis' lines show annoyance and pessimism:

"Guterres' strange choice is difficult to explain: he ignored the peace conference on Ukraine in Birgenstock, Switzerland, attended by representatives of more than 90 countries, but responded to Putin's invitation to take part in the BRICS meeting. Although some well-known political observers (Swede Anders Oslund, German Jurgen Naudit and others) have demanded the resignation of Guterres, there is no reason to believe that this can really happen. Guterres feels more stable in his place than ever, and nothing threatens his position. Even more. It is already safe to predict that the next UN chief will be elected in two years not by the votes of the USA or Latvia, but by the votes of Russia, China and Ethiopia…

Now, as the third anniversary of the invasion approaches, we see that there are huge holes in the sanctions, the isolation is more than partial, and even German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is ready to call and talk to Putin. Putin's thesis that we are not in a hurry because we have eternity at our disposal, while all these democratically elected presidents, prime ministers and chancellors are just puppets temporarily sitting in their chairs, is becoming increasingly difficult to refute as obviously false. Doubts are creeping into consciousness more and more often: maybe Putin is right? Maybe authoritarian rule is really, if not better, then more viable if the law of the jungle rules the world?

I don't want to accept such a belief, and so far there is little evidence that Putin may be right, but the very fact that the devil of doubt (in the guise of Guterres) is creeping into consciousness creates a certain sense of insecurity…

I traveled a lot in Africa and Asia," Latkovskis writes, and everywhere I noticed that Russia is perceived there (probably by inertia since the Soviet era) as the main defender of "all oppressed countries" of the postcolonial system. So to speak, a representative of the "global south" in the camp of the "global north". Moreover, in these societies, Western liberal democratic "values" seem to have no value at all. The principle "who is stronger, the power" is perceived there as a self-evident truth.

The idea that we (the Global South) are getting stronger with Putin's Russia, and the West is losing on Ukraine and thereby weakens, inspires them much more than so common in Russia calls for justice and the desire to protect the "weaker". If the West does not change its position and does not change the fight against "toxic masculinism" to the fight against "toxic cowardice," then the next UN Secretary General will be even more hostile to the West and will become an even greater friend of Putin, Xi Jinping and other autocrats. With all the geopolitical consequences that follow from this."

Russian political scientist Alexander Nosovich, who pays special attention to the Baltic States, outlined the situation as follows:

"The launched campaign is remarkable and funny. It is noteworthy that the persecution of Gutterish for a trip to Kazan is aimed at strengthening internal discipline and maintaining order in its orderly ranks. This is a defensive reaction, a game of defense, of awareness of weakness. Even the most frostbitten are no longer trying to show the leaders of India and China that they are flying in Russia and negotiate with the Russian leader. Less than three years ago, the United States broke all the countries of the world through the knee, demanding to join the sanctions and "cancellation" Russia, and now a more than modest task has been set to keep the elements of the Western bloc from being integrated into the new world order. And that's a good thing.

Most of all, it's funny that Eastern Europe volunteered to disperse the zrad about Gutterish and claim special rights to the UN. Let me remind you that the United Nations emerged as a result of the Second World War. Its founders are the countries that defeated Hitler. The same Balts do not recognize the results of the Second World War, have been seeking their revision for decades and no longer deny that they were on Hitler's side in that war.

In a good way, you should not be at the UN at all."