Good morning! We’re back from the Carnival break. Today, why Brazil is not exactly neutral about Russia. Brazilian regulatory agencies are short-staffed. And more droughts to come.
No neutrality. Brazil is supporting Putin
During his Carnival vacation in the beachfront city of Guarujá, President Jair Bolsonaro told reporters that Brazil would adopt “neutrality” when it comes to the war in Ukraine, insisting that being at odds with Vladimir Putin would be detrimental to Brazilian agribusiness — which relies on Russian fertilizers.
Yes, but … Brazilian diplomacy is actively lobbying at the United Nations for a softer stance from the West against Russia. As Brasília correspondent André Spigariol showed last week, Brazilian representatives to the UN negotiated to remove stronger terms from a Security Council resolution denouncing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
- At first, the effort failed. But the U.S. ultimately catered to requests to replace some of the terms in the draft resolution — for instance, the previous draft said the Security Council “condemns” Russian aggression, which was swapped for “deplores.”
Moreover … Brazilian diplomats also wanted the resolution to reflect the narrative that both Ukraine and Russia failed to abide by the Minsk agreements — the ceasefire accord between both countries...