Kyslytsya ridiculed Lavrov for quoting Orwell: Tovarishch lavrov, what animal are you?

Kyslytsya ridiculed Lavrov for quoting Orwell: Tovarishch lavrov, what animal are you?

Ukrinform
Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Sergiy Kyslytsya, has sharply criticised Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for trying to support his speech at the Security Council with images from the work of English writer George Orwell.

According to Ukrinform, Kyslytsya wrote about this on the social network X.

"Who does pathetic lavrov take us for when he tries to mobilise Orwell in his support? He may not be aware that New York diplomats have actually read Orwell, and are not in fact byproducts of the MGIMO in Soviet Union, where Orwell’s books were banned or censored.

Lavrov said the following at a Security Council meeting on multilateral cooperation on Tuesday: "In the last century, George Orwell, in his short story 'Animal Farm', already foresaw the essence of a rule-based order where all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others. If you do the will of the hegemon, you are allowed to do anything. And if you dare and start defending your national interests, you will be declared an outcast and subject to sanctions."

According to Kyslytsya, Lavrov's "speechwriters" forgot to remind him that the writer was a critic of Stalin and was hostile to Stalinism. According to Orwell himself, the satirical work Animal Farm, to which Lavrov refers, "reflects the events that preceded the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union - the period when Russia lived under the rule of Joseph Stalin's communist ideology, which is so beloved in today's collective farm Russia, almost idolised," the envoy explained.

Each animal in the Animal Farm, he added, represented a certain class of Soviet (read: today's Russian) society: Boxer, the working horse, represented the working class and ideological Stakhanovists; Veniamin, the sceptical donkey, represented the intelligentsia, who understood everything but did nothing; evil dogs represented NKVD officers; silent sheep represented the masses of people; Squealer, the pig, represented the government-controlled media, etc.

"At the top of the pyramid is a large, rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar named Napoleon (an allegory of Joseph Stalin), who gradually rewrote the Seven Commandments of Animalism (an allegoric reference to Communism), the main one of which began to sound like this: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." Kyslytsya wrote.

"So, tovarishch lavrov, what animal are you?" he asked rhetorically.

Read also: Kyslytsia: Change in UN Security Council's composition did not affect majority's position on Ukraine

As Ukrinform previously reported, Russia convened the UN Security Council on Tuesday to discuss multilateral cooperation in order to divert the international community's attention from Moscow's blatant violations of the UN Charter and its abuses in the Security Council. More than fifty countries condemned Russia's actions and supported Ukraine by signing a statement read by Kyslytsya.

Lavrov is visiting the UN headquarters on 16-17 July, taking advantage of Russia's presidency of the Security Council this month.

While citing and using any materials on the Internet, links to the website ukrinform.net not lower than the first paragraph are mandatory. In addition, citing the translated materials of foreign media outlets is possible only if there is a link to the website ukrinform.net and the website of a foreign media outlet. Materials marked as "Advertisement" or with a disclaimer reading "The material has been posted in accordance with Part 3 of Article 9 of the Law of Ukraine "On Advertising" No. 270/96-VR of July 3, 1996 and the Law of Ukraine "On the Media" No. 2849-Х of March 31, 2023 and on the basis of an agreement/invoice.

© 2015-2024 Ukrinform. All rights reserved.

Extended searchHide extended search
By period:
-