‘He’s An Indicted War Criminal!’ Ex-Amb Slams UN Leader On CNN For Meeting Vladimir Putin In Russia

CNN’s Bianna Golodryga spoke to former Ambassador William Taylor on Thursday and asked whether or not UN General Secretary António Guterres should have traveled to Russia to meet with Russian Vladimir Putin at the BRICS summit.

“Do you think it was appropriate for the UN General Secretary António Guterres, to travel to Russia, to Kazan for the BRICs summit?” Golodryga asked of Taylor – the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.

“I don’t. I don’t. I can’t imagine why he decided to go. I’m sure he will. Will try to make the case to the Russians, to Mr. Putin, that he should stop this war. That he should get out of Ukraine. But for Gutierrez, for the U.N. secretary general, to go to the state and meet the leader of that state, a member of the P5, who is conducting this war,” Taylor replied, adding:

This President Putin, Mr. Gutierrez, has to remember, is an indicted war criminal. He’s an indicted war criminal and unable to travel to most nations in the world. And the UN secretary general went to see him. This is unacceptable.

“Yeah, no doubt he could have sent that same message from New York or any other place around the world. William Taylor, Ambassador, thank you so much,” Golodryga replied.

The Associated Press reported on the growing influence of the BRICS summit, which is widely seen as an anti-U.S. alliance – although its state purpose is to deep financial ties between developing economies. The AP wrote, “The alliance that initially included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa when it was founded in 2009 has expanded to embrace Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Malaysia have formally applied to become members, and several other countries have expressed interest in joining.”

“The Kremlin touted the summit as “the largest foreign policy event ever held” by Russia,” noted the report.

Watch the clip above via CNN.