While the whole world copes with the crisis caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic responsible for COVID-19, Moscow has been attempting to take advantage of the situation. Under the pretext of helping them tackle a “common misfortune,” the Kremlin hopes, at a minimum, to pressure Western countries into easing sanctions and accepting the Russian annexation of Crimea. As a maximalist goal, Moscow wants to use the crisis to set in motion a redivision of the world.
One of the first steps in implementing this strategy was the attempt, made earlier this month by Moscow and its allies, to draft a United Nations resolution on lifting international sanctions under the pretext of combating coronavirus. The document was called the “Declaration of Solidarity in the Fight Against Coronavirus” and, in addition to general platitudes about the need for states to cooperate with each other and with the World Health Organization (WHO), it urged countries to “abandon trade wars and unilateral sanctions bypassing the U.N. Security Council.” The U.N. General Assembly rejected the version proposed by Moscow, however, instead approving a resolution titled “Global Solidarity to Fight the Coronavirus Disease 2019”.