Roger Waters is expected to address the United Nations Security Council in New York on Wednesday (February 8) on behalf of Russia on the situation in the Ukraine war.
The Russian ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzi, confirmed this to Reuters. He told the news service: “Let’s see what he’s going to say. He has a position and you will hear it tomorrow.”
Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, said Waters would speak at around 10 a.m. Eastern Time. “I can confirm that we have invited the famous British artist and rock musician Roger Waters as a speaker for tomorrow’s UN Security Council briefing on the prospects for a peaceful settlement of the crisis over Ukraine in connection with the increasing Western arms sales to that country.”
Roger Waters warns of war escalating
Most recently, Roger Waters publicly accused Ukraine and NATO of provoking an extended war with Russia. “This war is essentially about the action and reaction of NATO, which has pushed to the Russian border, which it promised not to do when Gorbachev negotiated the USSR’s withdrawal from all of Eastern Europe,” the 79-year-old said already in August 2022 in an interview with CNN.
He considers Russian war crimes to be lies and calls Joe Biden a “war criminal”. Months ago, Waters asked why Ukraine wasn’t being asked more clearly to conduct peace negotiations, rather than just supplying weapons that would prolong the war. For himself, he believes that his statements could also have consequences. Waters believes he is on Ukraine’s “kill list”.
Heavy criticism – “anti-Semitic to the core”
In the meantime, things should have gotten pretty lonely about the co-founder of Pink Floyd. His relentless commitment to Palestine, underpinned by anti-Semitic claims, has been criticized for years. On Monday (February 6th) even ex-colleague David Gilmour and his wife Polly Samsaon publicly turned against him, calling him “anti-Semitic to the core”, “misogynistic”, “melomaniac” and a “jealous idiot” and calling on him to stop the “nonsense”.
This year there are several concerts for Roger Waters in Germany. But because of his statements, several local politicians are trying to prevent the scheduled gigs. A desire that meets with resistance from event organizers – at least from an economic point of view.