Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and votes in favor of Russia in the UN General Assembly

Abstract

Why did some countries decline to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the United Nations General Assembly’s first emergency session since 1997? Our research investigates the various economic, military, political, geographic, and historical factors that may have influenced the voting behavior of these countries in favor of Russia. Our Probit regressions reveal that the probability of voting in favor of Russia is significantly and robustly higher in countries that have defense cooperation agreements with Russia, have a longer history of leftist governments, are major recipients of Russian aid, have political similarities with Russia, and have no history of war with the Soviet Union.