Russia changes stance towards UN resolutions on Libya – experts

19.05.2011 Moscow's position regarding UN Security Council resolutions on Libya has been changed, said Alexander Konovalov, the president of Strategic Analysis Institute.

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said at the press conference in Skolkovo Innovation Center that UN resolutions on Libya had been "defied" and recent actions of the western coalition had shown that "one can easily manipulate" those resolutions.

"The arguments made us refrain from vetoing the UN Resolution 1973 seem not so strong now, since we consider the western coalition has exceeded the mandate", emphasized Medvedev.

According to the expert, while debating about the resolution "nobody thought about the fact that air blocking of such big territory [like Libya] is impossible without firing at land targets and destruction of armor". "That is why it is not accidental that the resolution was passed", he explained.

Director of Political Research Institute MP Sergei Markov said in his turn that by making such statements, "Medvedev affirms that voting on the Libyan resolution (No. 1973) was a mistake". "This allowed western countries to deliver massive strikes and invade Libya's political situation", he said.

The expert supposed that Russia had abstained from voting "obviously because of some assurance given by western countries and regarding their moderate posture".

In his turn, president of Middle East Institute Evgeny Satanovsky agrees with Medvedev that free interpretation and "manipulating" of UN Security Council's resolution on Libya undermines authority of the United Nations Organization.

Protest actions started in Libya in mid-Feb; rioters demanded an ouster of national leader Muammar Gaddafi who has been governing the country for over 40 years. Later on, the demonstrations had grown into armed conflict between governmental forces and rebels which resulted in thousands of victims.

On March 17, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution imposing a no-fly zone over Libya and allowing foreign military intervention. The operation started on March 19 and was attended by Great Britain, France, the US, Canada, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Denmark, and Norway. The US handed over operation command to NATO late in March.