Roger Waters to Speak for Russia at UN Security Council on Ukraine, Moscow Claims – The Moscow Times

British musician Roger Waters of the rock group Pink Floyd will speak on behalf of Russia at the upcoming UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine, Russian diplomats said Wednesday.

Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s first deputy UN representative, said Waters’ attendance has been confirmed for the Russian-requested Security Council session. Waters himself has neither confirmed nor denied his attendance at the UN headquarters in New York. 

Waters, 79, has blamed the United States and NATO for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying in an open letter to the Ukrainian president’s wife last fall: “Throwing fuel, in the form of armaments, into a fire fight, has never worked to shorten a war.”

Wednesday’s UN Security Council session, Polyansky said, will address crisis settlement prospects in Ukraine “in the context of increasing Western arms deliveries to this country.”

Some reports said Waters will speak via video link from Switzerland.

Waters’ pro-Russia stance has led to a public rift with Polly Samson, Pink Floyd’s former lyricist and the partner of vocalist David Gilmour, who slammed him as a “Putin apologist.”

After Russia invaded Ukraine last February, Pink Floyd removed its non-Waters-affiliated music from Russian streaming services and released a single in support of Kyiv.

Reuters quoted an unnamed UN Security Council diplomat as mocking Waters’ invitation by Russia, saying: “Russian diplomacy used to be serious. What next? Mr. Bean?”