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As of: 03/31/2022 4:18 p.m
Wassili Nebensya represents Russia at the United Nations and spreads Kremlin war propaganda around the world. He was considered affable, he never let himself be seen through – now he is isolated.
Moscow’s UN ambassador to the United Nations hasn’t parked his Moto Guzzi in front of his residence on New York’s Upper East Side since the beginning of the Ukraine invasion. The convivial rounds of vodka, which Western colleagues loved to come to on his terrace, are also canceled for Wassili Nebensja.
The diplomat has become lonely since he had to sell the war against Ukraine to the world community – and sentences like this: “During this meeting, President Putin made the decision for a military special operation in Donbass,” said at the last of many meetings of the UN Security Council, in which his Western colleagues still believed they were looking for a diplomatic solution with Nebensia.
The visibly bad-tempered, bald-headed behemoth cynically threw out journalists as they walked in: “I’m starting to like these late-night events.”
The handwritten note that shortly afterwards circulated between the top diplomats at the horseshoe table sent shivers down their spines: while they were fighting for peace, Putin had started the war. Nebenzja looked pale. But he showed no emotion. A professional follows the direction from Moscow – and according to many colleagues, that means: lies as printed.
“He is given the narrative”
Whether it’s the so-called “special military operation,” alleged US bioweapons laboratories in Ukraine, from which poisoned bats are said to be unleashed on Russians, or the pregnant woman killed in the Mariupol bombing raids, which Nebensia coolly describes as a fake: undeterred, he reads monotonously Agree with what Moscow dictates: “Our partners deny everything. They don’t listen to us. They don’t accept that we present facts and not propaganda.”
The broad-shouldered giant with the poker face behind the rimless glasses could play the villain in a James Bond film. Nothing seems to shake him. He wipes away critics with a merciless cynicism. Like all Russian diplomats, he was trained to play his role, says Thomas Graham, a Russia expert at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank in New York:
His role is to defend the Russian position and what is happening in Ukraine and keep repeating it in front of the world. Countering the Western narrative with so-called ‘facts’ in order to confuse people.
The screenplay for these performances is being written entirely by the Russian leadership, says Graham, former Russia envoy to US President George W. Bush’s National Security Council. “The points of speech are written at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow. I am sure that the narrative will be given to him very clearly – the position he has to defend.”
All Russian diplomats are trained to lie shamelessly – no matter what they’re thinking: everyone has learned to use even the most minimal body language in order not to let anyone look at their cards. Their own influence is small: instead of being decision-makers themselves, they have to sell the Kremlin’s positions to an international audience – in Moscow they are not even asked for their political advice.
Enjoying the villain role?
Nebensia had made a name for himself as Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Five years ago he replaced his predecessor Vitaly Churkin as envoy of the Moscow Permanent Mission on the East River. The diplomat, nicknamed “Mr. No,” died unexpectedly one day before his 65th birthday.
Apparently he died of a heart attack in his office. But the suspicion of possible poisoning was never ruled out. That was at a time when, within a few months, eight Russian diplomats suddenly died worldwide: shot, ill, found dead.
In the past, Nebensja had been valued as a highly professional diplomat among international colleagues, says Richard Gowan, UN director of the Crisis Group think tank: “Other ambassadors to the Security Council have always said that they like him and can work well with him – at least that was before the war like that.”
Up to this point, his colleagues had described Nebensja as a “nice guy”. He is smart and sociable, humorous and even warm-hearted. And one thing is not guaranteed: an apparatchik. Nebensja is known for his fun with wordplay. Which in turn makes him a tough guy behind the heavy curtains of the Security Council – and a world champion of the veto.
In times of peace, Nebensja can also be relaxed – as here at a press event on the occasion of the 2018 World Cup, which took place in Russia.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
When he smashes resolutions with a “Njet,” it often seems like he’s enjoying the villain role. “He has a talent for public theater in the Security Council,” says Gowan. “And if he wants to crack down on other members, then he does.”
In doing so, Nebensja also persuaded former German UN ambassador Christoph Heusgen to break diplomatic etiquette: when Russia and China blocked Germany’s efforts in the Security Council to provide humanitarian aid to the Syrian population, Heusgen gave up on the Russian and his Chinese colleague: you should ask their supervisors if they could still look in the mirror.
He seems restless, many say
But on the other hand, Nebensia is said to have worked on Moscow so that at least one border crossing remains open for such international aid. He wanted to prevent his country from being completely isolated at the United Nations, say diplomats.
That was before the war in Ukraine. Now, in fact, Nebensya is isolated; Cut off from influence in Moscow, as well as from his colleagues in New York. He seems restless, say those who meet him.
“At least on screen he looks tired. And in some of his appearances – especially before the General Assembly – many get the impression that he just wants to get this over with quickly,” agrees Gowan. “We just don’t know what he actually thinks about the claims he’s making.”