Russia is opposing efforts by the United States to get the United Nations Security Council to impose targeted sanctions against Zimbabwean leaders responsible for political violence.
Although the leaders of the industrial world – including Russia – issued a statement in Japan on Tuesday calling for "financial and other measures against those individuals responsible for violence," the Russian permanent representative at the UN, Vitaly Churkin, told reporters in New York that "the statement… does not refer to the Security Council."
The United States has characterized the situation in Zimbabwe as a threat to peace which justifies the imposition of sanctions under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which empowers the council to take steps to maintain or restore international peace and security.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. permanent representative, told journalists in New York Tuesday that "even those" who opposed sanctions "say that the situation... has destabilized the region."
"A quarter of the population of Zimbabwe are now in the neighboring countries," Khalilzad added. "There is more violence to come - which people anticipate if the circumstances are not resolved... There will be more people leaving Zimbabwe to come to the neighboring states. That affects the stability of the neighboring states. You already have seen incidents in South Africa and other places..."
But Churkin said Russia had "serious questions" as to whether the Zimbabwean situation constituted enough of a threat to peace and security to justify Chapter VII measures. He said some elements of the U.S. draft resolution before the Security Council were "quite excessive, in fact incongruous and clearly in conflict with the notion of the sovereignty of a member state of the UN."
Churkin declined to say whether Russia would veto the resolution – "veto is a very big word" – but backed the South African representative, Dumisani Kumalo, who told journalists: "We share the frustration of everybody but we are saying don't take measures that are going to complicate the situation and literally blow the country apart."
Khalilzad suggested there was enough support on the UN Security Council to secure passage of a sanctions resolution this week, provided Russia did not veto it. A resolution needs the support of nine of the 15 members of the council, including permanent members with veto rights, of which Russia is one.
Khalilzad said: "We believe absent a veto - which we do not anticipate, but you can't rule it out... the votes are there to move forward."
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He told reporters there was "broad agreement... that the Council cannot be indifferent to what has happened, that action is required." But, he added, "there are differences of view on exactly what should be done. There are some who argue that only political pressure is needed.
"We are of the view that we have been there and done that and have failed to get results... What we have proposed... is very tailored, very focused sanctions, an arms embargo, and targeted sanctions on individuals in whose hands it is to allow a process to start that can produce results."
Khalilzad asserted that Tuesday's G8 Summit statement on Zimbabwe "has provided the support needed for us here to move. We were going to move in any case. Our... draft resolution predates the G8 statement but we see in the statement support for us to continue the course that we were on."
