UN Chief Guterres Under Fire for Meeting With Vladimir Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s meeting with UN Secretary General António Guterres on October 24 spurred massive controversy in the West. (Courtesy: Flickr)

(Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on November 13, 2024.)

In a controversial move, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the 2024 BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia. BRICS, an economic partnership originally established in 2009 between Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, has emerged as a significant worldwide partnership seeking to counter Western influence across the globe, expanding its membership to now comprise 30 percent of the world’s GDP—a greater share than the G7 countries—and 45 percent of the world’s population.

The high-profile meeting marked the first encounter between the UN Secretary-General and the Russian President since Putin intensified Russia’s military operations in Ukraine in February 2022, beginning a conflict that has killed over a million people and caused Ukraine’s population to fall by 10 million, leading to the International Criminal Court (ICC) issuing an arrest warrant for President Putin over alleged war crimes relating to the illegal deportation of children from Ukraine.

Guterres' meeting with Putin, which coincided with United Nations Day—a day celebrating the organization’s founding principles of peace and human rights—has provoked sharp criticism from Ukraine and its allies, who accused the UN Secretary-General of "undermining the credibility of the UN and the ICC." Interestingly, Guterres recently declined an invitation to a Ukrainian-hosted peace summit in Switzerland just a few months ago.

Critics pointed to UN guidelines prohibiting meetings between UN officials and individuals subject to warrants from the ICC as gross misconduct. However, Guterres’ staff defended his decision by citing the same guideline that allowed for such meetings if they were “imperative for UN-mandated activities.” Guterres’ attendance of the BRICS summit was a calculated move, some argue, with the Secretary-General seeking to avoid further alienating non-Western or pro-Russian countries and promoting their support for the UN. However, his move has also prompted criticism in the West.

While Guterres claimed to have been promoting a “just peace in line with international law” in Ukraine during his meeting with Putin, many world leaders are not buying his excuse, with Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis tweeting: “If [Guterres] decides to resign, Lithuania won't try to talk him out of it.” It will be interesting to see how Guterres handles this controversy and restores the legitimacy of the United Nations in such a volatile global political landscape.