RUSSIA REQUESTS DELAY IN VOTE ON UNSC RESOLUTION

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 001965 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/09/2018 TAGS: PREL UNSC ZI RS SUBJECT: RUSSIA REQUESTS DELAY IN VOTE ON UNSC RESOLUTION ON ZIMBABWE REF: A. STATE 73173 ¶B. MOSCOW 1928 Classified By: Ambassador John R. Beyrle. Reasons 1.4(b) and (d) ¶1. (C) We delivered reftel demarche to MFA International Organizations Director Gennadiy Gatilov and Counselor Vitaliy Liplinskiy July 9. They expressed concern at the information that the U.S. intended to seek a vote on the resolution on July 9, noting that Russian UN Ambassador Churkin had requested a delay in the vote until July 11 to allow FM Lavrov to speak about the issue with President Medvedev. Shortly thereafter, Ambassador received a call from MFA North America Acting Director Sofinskiy "at the direct request of Minister Lavrov." Sofinskiy said Lavrov,s understanding was that the US planned to initiate discussion of Zimbabwe in the UNSC on July 10 with a view to seeking agreement on a sanctions package. Sofinskiy conveyed Lavrov's request that the discussion be postponed for 2-3 days until the Russian side had time for "necessary internal coordination," i.e., that they would not be able to brief Medvedev and obtain his approval of the Russian position until he returned to Moscow, which meant not before July 11. If the U.S. insisted on going ahead with this discussion without waiting, Lavrov,s message was that we would end up having a "heated argument" that was in no one's interest. Sofinskiy said Churkin would be instructed to make the same request in New York, but he stressed that this was Lavrov,s direct request, and that it was tied to the need to discuss the issue with Medvedev. ¶2. (C) The MFA asked that we inform them as soon as possible if we intended to seek a vote on the resolution in the next two days. BEYRLE