"Traitor of the West": Media and diplomats slam UN Secretary-General Guterres for visiting Russia.

The participation of United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in the BRICS summit in Kazan and his communication with the Russian and Belarusian dictators Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko caused severe criticism in the German media.

As "Khvylya" reports, this is discussed in a DW article.

In particular, the conservative newspaper FAZ, in a commentary titled "UN Secretary General at Putin's Show," writes that António Guterres should not be reproached for the mere fact of contacting BRICS. This is part of his duties - to regularly maintain ties with all UN member states regardless of their political systems.

"He has no right to ignore an organization like BRICS, as it includes two permanent members of the UN Security Council and unites countries that are home to nearly half the planet's population," the article states.

However, the newspaper emphasizes that Guterres should have realized that talking to Putin would achieve nothing that could even slightly bring closer the end of the war in Ukraine, which he initiated. Moreover, he became part of the propaganda show of the Russian regime, which in Kazan sought to prove that it has not ended up in international isolation, even after violating the UN Charter.

The more critically-minded leftist newspaper taz. In a commentary titled: "Guterres Discredits the United Nations," it accuses the former leader of the Socialist Party of Portugal and the prime minister of this Western European country of having "betrayed the West."

"The highest representative of international law tries Tatar sweets as a guest of a person who despises international law. "Oh, delicious," he says. What a gift for Putin! At the same Time, Guterres looks good-naturedly into TV cameras and announces through his press secretary that trips to BRICS summits are "standard practice... Is it now "standard practice" to sit at a BRICS roundtable in Russia and demonstrate the "normalcy" of the war that Putin is waging against Ukraine by violating international law? By doing so, Guterres has discredited the UN. But he seems not to see a problem here. Just as he sees no problem with countries like Iran, China, and Russia openly discussing the "dictatorial West" and falsely claiming they have created a "democratic and transparent system" within BRICS that "promotes human rights," they raged in the newspaper.

In turn, the Berlin newspaper Tagesspeigel believes that "Guterres is harming himself and the UN." According to the article's author, anyone with even a bit of political instinct should have stayed away from the Kazan summit.

"However, António Guterres fatally lacks such intuition. But he is the head of the United Nations, he is the world's top diplomat, he is, by his position, the supreme guardian of international law. Merely the fact that this Portuguese gentleman graced a propaganda meeting in Kazan with his presence". – and thus the Russian president is a scandal. And the fact that he also shook his hand, smiling amiably, is simply outrageous," the article says.

The author of the article also notes that by visiting Kazan, Guterres "gave a gift to the dictator," and this gesture, which "looked like servility, is equal to a slap in the face to Ukrainians who have been living in war conditions for over two years."

Meanwhile, a commentator for Germany's public broadcaster ARD considers that the UN Secretary-General in Kazan could have not just called for a "just peace in Ukraine" but also diplomatically reminded Putin that "he started the war and that he can end it immediately."

"This is exactly the kind of cowardly appeasement by Western politicians that former KGB officer Putin has repeatedly publicly mocked. Of course, to end the war in Ukraine, one will have to talk to Putin. However, Guterres is a prime example of how this should not be done," the article states.

However, the Russia expert at Berlin's foreign policy research institute "Science and Politics Foundation" (SWP) Janis Kluge (Janis Kluge) is one of the few to note that on the sidelines of the Kazan summit, UN Secretary-General António Guterres also met and warmly embraced the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko.

"Can't someone take this old man home? He looks confused, and these people are using him," he wrote on social media platform X.

Let us recall that Zelensky showed the world what Putin is doing after meeting with Guterres in Kazan.