Russia will assume the presidency of the U.N. Security Council on February 1 for one month according to the body’s regular protocol, which rotates its leadership among the council’s members approximately every 30 days.
The U.N. Security Council is one of six principal organs of the United Nations. It is responsible for making decisions that impact international security and holds powers including the ability to authorize military action. The body counts 15 member states (five permanent and ten elected). Russia, China, the U.S., the U.K., and France comprise the council’s permanent members, which hold veto power within the body. The U.N. Security Council shares its leadership among all of its members by naming a new president each month based on an alphabetical system.
“The presidency of the Council is held by each of the members in turn for one month, following the English alphabetical order of the Member States names,” according to the U.N. website.
Norway is the current president of the U.N. Security Council for the month of January. Russia will assume the mantle for 28 days starting February 1.
Russia’s impending leadership of the U.N. Security Council comes during a time of heightened political tension between Moscow and Washington. Mainstream and corporate-funded U.S. media outlets have elevated reports fueled by White House speculation that the Kremlin has immediate plans to invade Ukraine, Russia’s neighbor. Moscow will have the power to authorize military action through the U.N. Security Council when it assumes leadership of the organ next month, a development that could serve to fan the flames of panic over the current situation in Ukraine.
Various Ukrainian government officials have issued statements over the past 48 hours to assure the international public that a Russian invasion of Ukraine beyond the ongoing one that began in 2014 remains purely theoretical at the moment.
“As of today, there are no grounds to believe that Russia is preparing to invade imminently,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told the Ukrainian parliament on January 25, as quoted by the Associated Press.
Reznikov said Russian troops currently positioned in and around Ukraine “have not formed what he called a battle group that could force its way through the [Ukraine] border.”
“We don’t see any grounds for allegations of an (imminent) offensive against our country today. It would be impossible to pull this out, even physically,” Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, told the state-run Ukrinform at a press conference on January 24.