USA: Undermining legitimacy and authority of UN is 'highly dangerous' - Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin defended the United Nations during his speech at the 70th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, Monday. "The United Nations is a unique structure in terms of legitimacy, representativeness, and universality," Putin stated. "We consider the attempts to undermine the UN's legitimacy and authority highly dangerous. This can lead to a destruction of the entire architecture of international relations. We will then have nothing but the law of the jungle," the Russian president added. Discussing the weaknesses of the organisation, Putin noted that "when the UN was founded, it was not assumed that it will be dominated by the agreement of opinions. The essence of the organisation is to find and work on compromises and its strength lies in considering different opinions and points of view," adding that "differences within the UN were always there throughout the whole 70 years of existence of the organisation." Discussing the future of the UN, the Russian leader admitted that the organisation must adapt to a changing world and pledged Russia's commitment to bring about the changes needed for future development. "Of course, the world is changing and the UN must adapt to this natural transformation. Russia, on the basis of a broad consensus, is ready for that work on the future development of the UN, together with all our partners," Putin said.