WHO Should Not Be Used As Puck To Settle Political Accounts: Russian Deputy FM

Sergei Ryabkov

MOSCOW, May 19 (NNN-TASS) – The World Health Organisation (WHO) should not be used as a puck to settle political accounts, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said Tuesday.

“WHO should not become a puck to be passed back and forth, pursuing goals other than those of building most efficient international cooperation against the pandemic,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying.

Ryabkov said Russia is against politicising everything related to the spread of the virus and is in favour of finding ways that would allow us to advance towards a more effective solution to the problems associated with the pandemic, to consolidate the role of WHO and to prevent its weakening.

Unfortunately, these areas are not among priorities for the United States and a number of its closest allies, he said.

Ryabkov said, Moscow does not see any reason not to trust “the information and the methods that were used and disseminated as WHO information from Chinese colleagues.”

U.S. President, Donald Trump, sent a letter to WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in which he threatened to stop financing it and reconsider U.S. membership, unless WHO commits to “substantive improvements” within 30 days.