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The
Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eight ...
succeeded to the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
's
seat A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but also headquarters in a wider sense. Types of seat The following are examples of different kinds of seat: * Armchair, a chair eq ...
, including its permanent membership on the
Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, and ...
in the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...
after the 1991
dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
, which originally co-founded the UN in 1945. The succession was supported by the USSR's former members and was not objected to by the UN membership; Russia accounted for about half the Soviet Union's economy and the majority of its people and land mass; in addition, the
history of the Soviet Union The history of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union (USSR) reflects a period of change for both Russia and the world. Though the terms "Soviet Russia" and "Soviet Union" often are synonymous in everyday speech (either acknowledging the dominance ...
began in Russia. If there was to be a successor to the Soviet seat on the Security Council among the former Soviet republics, these factors made Russia seem a logical choice. Nonetheless, due to the rather inflexible wording of the
United Nations Charter The Charter of the United Nations (UN) is the foundational treaty of the UN, an intergovernmental organization. It establishes the purposes, governing structure, and overall framework of the UN system, including its six principal organs: the ...
and its lack of provision for succession, the succession's technical legality has been questioned by some international lawyers.


History

Chapter V, Article 23 of the UN Charter, adopted in 1945, provides that "The Security Council should consist of fifteen Members of the United Nations. The
Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeas ...
, The
French Republic France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area e ...
, the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
, the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, and the
United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
shall be permanent members of the Security Council." The USSR collapsed in late 1991. Eleven of the twelve members of the Commonwealth of Independent States signed a declaration on December 21, 1991, agreeing that "Member states of the Commonwealth support Russia in taking over the USSR membership in the UN, including permanent membership in the Security Council." One day before the resignation of
Soviet President The president of the Soviet Union (russian: Президент Советского Союза, Prezident Sovetskogo Soyuza), officially the president of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (), abbreviated as president of the USSR (), was ...
Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Commu ...
, Ambassador Y. Vorontsov transmitted to the
UN Secretary-General The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or SG) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. The role of the secretary-g ...
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar Javier Felipe Ricardo Pérez de Cuéllar de la Guerra (; ; 19 January 1920 – 4 March 2020) was a Peruvian diplomat and politician who served as the fifth Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1982 to 1991. He later served as Prime Mini ...
a letter from
President of the Russian Federation The president of the Russian Federation ( rus, Президент Российской Федерации, Prezident Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is the head of state of the Russian Federation. The president leads the executive branch of the federal ...
Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...
stating that: The Secretary-General circulated the request among the UN membership. There being no objection, the Russian Federation took the USSR's place, with Boris Yeltsin personally taking the Russian Federation's seat at the January 31, 1992 Security Council meeting.


Legality

The legality of the succession has been questioned by international lawyer
Yehuda Zvi Blum Yehuda Zvi Blum ( he, יהודה צבי בלום; born 2 October 1931) is an Israeli professor of law and diplomat who served as Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations from 1978 to 1984. Biography Yehuda Z. Blum was born in Br ...
, who opined that "with the demise of the Soviet Union itself, its membership in the UN should have automatically lapsed and Russia should have been admitted to membership in the same way as the other newly-independent republics (except for Belarus and Ukraine)." The elimination of Soviet (and subsequently Russian) membership on the UN Security Council would have created a
constitutional crisis In political science, a constitutional crisis is a problem or conflict in the function of a government that the political constitution or other fundamental governing law is perceived to be unable to resolve. There are several variations to this ...
for the UN, which may be why the UN Secretary-General and members did not object. This situation could have been avoided had all the other nations but Russia seceded from the USSR, allowing the USSR to continue existing as a legal entity. A mere change of name by itself, from the USSR to the Russian Federation, would not have barred Russia from succeeding the USSR.
Zaire Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was ...
changed its name to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and retained its UN seat. A change in the USSR's system of government likewise would not have prevented the succession;
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...
and many other countries have made a transition from
monarchy A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic (constitutional monarchy), ...
to
republic A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...
without jeopardizing their positions in international organizations. However, Blum argues that a key difference between these situations is that the Soviet Union was terminated as a legal entity. The 11 former member nations that supported the transfer of the seat to Russia also declared that "with the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics ceases to exist." The poorly defined rules on state succession make the legal situation murky. Professor concluded that the succession was legitimate, identifying three reasons: "Firstly, after the dissolution, Russia is /nowiki>sic.html" ;"title="sic.html" ;"title="/nowiki>sic">/nowiki>sic">sic.html" ;"title="/nowiki>sic">/nowiki>sic/nowiki> still remains one of the largest States in the world geographically and demographically. Secondly, Soviet Russia after 1917 and especially the Soviet Union after 1922 were treated as continuing the same State as existed under the Russian Empire. These are objective factors to show that Russia is the continuation of the Soviet Union. The third reason which forms the subjective factor is the State’s behaviour and the recognition of the continuity by the third States." The Vienna Convention on Succession of States in respect of Treaties was not a factor in the succession because it did not enter into force until 1996.


Effect on the United Nations

The transition led to increased debate on the relevance of the 1945 system of a Security Council dominated by five permanent members to the present world situation. Russians abroad note that Russia is "only half the size of the former Soviet economy"; the transition thus marked a significant change in the entity exercising this permanent seat. Mohamed Sid-Ahmed noted that "one of the five powers enjoying veto prerogatives in the Security Council has undergone a fundamental identity change. When the Soviet Union became Russia, its status changed from that of a
superpower A superpower is a state with a dominant position characterized by its extensive ability to exert influence or project power on a global scale. This is done through the combined means of economic, military, technological, political and cultural s ...
at the head of the communist camp to that of a society aspiring to become part of the capitalist world. Russia's permanent membership in the Security Council is no longer taken for granted. The global ideological struggle that had for so long dominated the international scene is no more, and the new realities have to be translated into a different set of global institutions." The years following the breakup of the Soviet Union have seen a dramatic increase in the number of proposals for Security Council reform. In 2005,
Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (; 8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the found ...
's report '' In Larger Freedom'' proposed finalizing arrangements to add more permanent seats as soon as possible. Campaigns to abolish the veto have also gained support, although their adoption is unlikely in the near future, since it would require the consent of the Permanent Five.
Global Policy Forum The Global Policy Forum (GPF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in December 1993 and based in New York and Bonn (Global Policy Forum Europe). � The aim of the Global Policy Forum is to critically accompany and analyze develo ...
has on file several statements from the Permanent Five, giving arguments for why the current system should be maintained.
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eight ...
, for instance, states the veto is necessary for "balanced and sustainable decisions". Nonetheless, Russia has utilised its veto on matters pertaining to conflicts it is directly involved in, as other permanent members have done. This directly breaks Articles 27 and 52 of the
UN Charter The Charter of the United Nations (UN) is the foundational treaty of the UN, an intergovernmental organization. It establishes the purposes, governing structure, and overall framework of the UN system, including its six principal organs: the ...
and paralyses the UN System as a whole by undermining its purpose as set out in Article 1, and equally the purpose of The Security Council laid out in Articles 24 and 25. For instance, at the beginning of the
2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...
draft resolution S/2022/155 both condemning the invasion and rearticulating Ukrainian sovereignty was vetoed by the Russian Federation on the 25th of February 2022, whilst Russia was president of the Security Council no less, undermining the council's capabilities in regards to the situation.


Precedent for Scottish and Irish independence

Professor
Andrew MacLeod Andrew Michael MacLeod is an Australian/British businessman, author, humanitarian lawyer, philanthropist and former aid worker. MacLeod is CEO and Chair of British-based Griffin Law, a Non-Executive Director of the New York-based Cornerstone ...
of Kings College argues that the Russian example could be a precedent for hypothetical independence developments in the United Kingdom. Should Scotland, Northern Ireland, or both choose to leave the country, he argues, this would dissolve the Acts of Union and the
Act of Settlement The Act of Settlement is an Act of the Parliament of England that settled the succession to the English and Irish crowns to only Protestants, which passed in 1701. More specifically, anyone who became a Roman Catholic, or who married one, be ...
, and hence the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland would no longer exist. The question would then be how the reinstated
Kingdom of England The Kingdom of England (, ) was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from 12 July 927, when it emerged from various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. On 12 ...
could claim to be the continuing state for UN and Security Council membership. However, this view would probably be inconsistent with specific legislation passed by the
Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
, and does not take into account the fact that the
Treaty of Union The Treaty of Union is the name usually now given to the treaty which led to the creation of the new state of Great Britain, stating that the Kingdom of England (which already included Wales) and the Kingdom of Scotland were to be "United i ...
of 1706 has been, since then, well incorporated into the British legal system, and hence a Scottish independence would not bring an abrogation of the treaty and a termination of the United Kingdom, but rather only a reduction in its size—as happened with Irish independence in 1922.


Fallout over the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

After the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...
, Ukrainian ambassador to the UN
Sergiy Kyslytsya Sergiy Olehovych Kyslytsya ( uk, Сергій Олегович Кислиця; born 15 August 1969) is a Ukrainian career diplomat, who serves as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine and Permanent Representative of Ukraine ...
and some members of the
United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...
have called for the suspension or expulsion of Russia from the United Nations and its organs and removing its veto power, which violated Article 6 of the Charter. Such a move would require an amendment of Article 23 of the UN Charter to remove Russia's membership as a permanent member of the Security Council (assuming Russia is validly the successor of the USSR). The legality of such a move has been disputed. This egregious behaviour prompted the
UN General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Cur ...
to hold on 2 March 2022 the
eleventh emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly The eleventh emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly opened on 28 February 2022 at the United Nations headquarters. It addresses the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Maldivian politician Abdulla Shahid served as Preside ...
, which adopted a resolution deploring Russia's invasion of Ukraine, demanded a full withdrawal of Russian forces and a reversal of its decision to recognise the self-declared People's Republics of Donetsk and
Luhansk Luhansk (, ; uk, Луганськ, ), also known as Lugansk (, ; russian: Луганск, ), is a city in what is internationally recognised as Ukraine, although it is administered by Russia as capital of the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). ...
. The tenth paragraph of the UNGA Resolution of 2 March 2022 confirmed the involvement of Belarus in unlawful use of force against Ukraine. The resolution was sponsored by 96 countries, and passed with 141 voting in favour, 5 against, and 35 abstentions.


See also

*
Succession of states Succession of states is a concept in international relations regarding a successor state that has become a sovereign state over a territory (and populace) that was previously under the sovereignty of another state. The theory has its roots in 19th- ...
*
Soviet Union and the United Nations The Soviet Union was a charter member of the United Nations and one of five permanent members of the Security Council. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, its UN seat was transferred to the Russian Federation. Role in the fo ...


References


Further reading


Official site of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the UN
*Blum, Yehuda Z.

European Journal of International Law. *Mullerson, Rein

(1993) 42 AJIL, p 476 * ttp://www.globalpolicy.org/security/docs/russia99.htm Russia Vetoes the Abolition of the Veto Statement by a Representative of the Russian Federation in the Open-Ended Working Group on Security Council Reform on Veto Issue, Mar. 24, 1999.
Chapter 6. The Economy
Russianabroad. *Sid-Ahmed, Mohamed

Cairo Al-Ahram, July 8–14, 1999.
United Nations Charter



External links


Official site of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the UN
*
Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations
{{DEFAULTSORT:Russia And The United Nations