"The main thing is that there were no incidents during [Russia's UNSC] presidency, despite ridiculous attempts of some countries to accuse us that we can abuse the presidency and that someone else should preside instead of us, because, they say, Russia does not deserve to chair the Security Council," Nebenzia said. "It goes against every conceivable rule."
Most importantly, Nebenzia added, no one questioned either the British or the American presidencies in October and November 2003 after the coalition carried out an obvious aggression in Iraq.
Nebenzia also pointed out that the Russian mission has succeeded in everything they planned.
"Everything went smoothly, all the planned events of the month were completed," he said. "We have held open debates three times on the topic of arms transfers, on the issue of effective multilateralism and on the Middle East. The last two were chaired by [Russian Foreign] Minister Sergey Lavrov."
Nebenzia concluded by saying that the chairmanship of the Americans in May of 2022 was quite professional, unlike their predecessors - the UK - who violated the rules of the game at least four times.
Russian diplomats working at the mission to the United Nations in New York are easily coping with the pressure they face in the current international environment as they have "about 1,001 ways" to overcome it, Nebenzia said.
"We deal with the pressure easily. We have about 1,001 ways to do it," Nebenzia said when asked about the pressure on the mission.
Nebenzia also told Sputnik what has changed in New York since his last mission in 1996-2000.
"New York has become better and cleaner if we are talking about its appearance. But, of course, it is far from Moscow," the diplomat said, adding that his foreign colleagues do not believe his words, so he invites them to Moscow "to come and see with their own eyes."
According to Nebenzia, New York has faced two major shocks since 2000.
"The first was, of course, 9/11, after which it took a long time for the city to recover. I had already left [the city] at the time, but I came regularly and saw it all. And the second is COVID, which, of course, also had a strong impact on the atmosphere ... on the city, on the businesses that massively fled because they could not cope with the absence of customers, the people who had locked themselves in their homes and had been sitting, shaking from what was happening," the diplomat said.
"The first was, of course, 9/11, after which it took a long time for the city to recover. I had already left [the city] at the time, but I came regularly and saw it all. And the second is COVID, which, of course, also had a strong impact on the atmosphere ... on the city, on the businesses that massively fled because they could not cope with the absence of customers, the people who had locked themselves in their homes and had been sitting, shaking from what was happening," the diplomat said.
Russia took over the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council for the month of April. Nebenzia said that the Russian mission has succeeded in everything they planned despite efforts of some countries to accuse Russia of allegedly abusing the presidency.
The Russian presidency of the UNSC was overshadowed by delays in the issuance of visas to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his press pool by the US, which is home to the permanent UN headquarters. This led the top Russian diplomat to suggest that the UN headquarters be relocated from New York.
The Russian presidency of the UNSC was overshadowed by delays in the issuance of visas to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his press pool by the US, which is home to the permanent UN headquarters. This led the top Russian diplomat to suggest that the UN headquarters be relocated from New York.