The Key West Citizen

Behind The
World News

(By The Associated Press)

By GEORGE BRIAN

Why does Russia stay in the United Nations?

For years now, the Russians have been outvoted on major East-West issues.

Since Korea, the score against the Russians has been increasingly heavy—often the only votes cast in favor of a Russian proposal have been the four lonely votes of the Soviet satellites.

That means only five votes—in a 60-nation organization.

And the current assembly in Paris has rebuffed the Russians again and again.

The assembly is only two weeks old, and already the Russians have lost moves on Red China, on Nationalist China, on Yugoslavia, on Germany. There seems to be nothing but defeat in store for the Russians in all major issues.

The Russians, of course are not unaware of this and they've attacked the United Nations repeatedly with the charge that it has become the instrument of American imperialism.

Nevertheless, the Russians have given no sign that they're thinking of tearing up their membership card. On the contrary, they pay their dues and keep going to meetings.

It would seem from this that the Kremlin believes it has more to gain from UN membership than it has to lose—regardless of how many of its resolutions are defeated.

What is there for Russia in the UN?

Well, for one thing, Russia holds a permanent seat on the security council. Despite the fact that the assembly has given itself the power to by-pass the security council on some issues—in order to neutralize the Russian veto—the council, nevertheless, is still a powerful body.

None of the five permanent members—the United States, Britain, France, Russia or China—has proposed abolishing the security council, even though it may now be by-passed. They consider those seats important.

The security council then, is one factor which may be keeping the Russians inside the world organization. There are others.

There is, of course, the war of words, the propaganda factor.

Thousands of words are reported daily from the UN meetings—and thousands of those represent the Russian view.

There's no better forum than the UN for getting your point out to the public in the hope that here and there, even today, there might be a convert.

The UN as a sounding board appears to be one of the major factors which keeps the Russians from permanently walking out. And aside from the propaganda factor, there's no better place than a United Nations meeting for a diplomat to learn, quickly and all at once, how most of the world feels on a given issue.

The UN also provides a convenient cover for diplomatic maneuvering which can lead to important developments. The negotiations which led to the settlement of the Berlin blockade, for example, were initiated by UN delegates acting outside the UN.

By that same token, UN meetings provide an opportunity for the top east-west officials to be together in one place without the necessity of holding a formal big-four session.

Right now, for example, Dean Acheson, Anthony Eden, Andrei Vishinsky and Robert Schuman are all in Paris—at the UN meeting.

And there's nothing to prevent an informal contact, a two-way, as well as a three-way or big four meeting.

Those are some of the reasons which may be keeping the Russians—and some other countries, too—inside the United Nations.