MOSCOW, November 20 – RIA Novosti. Grigory Ordzhonikidze, executive secretary of the Russian UNESCO Commission, said in an interview with RIA Novosti that UNESCO did stupid things by including borscht in the list of intangible heritage requiring urgent protection, and this does not honor this UN agency.

In July, the Ukrainian borscht culture was included in UNESCO’s list of intangible heritage in urgent need of protection as the country is in an armed conflict. Earlier, the assessment body of the organization emphasized that borscht is prepared in other countries of Eastern Europe.

“If I’m not mistaken, there are Moscow, Belarusian and Poles as well as Ukrainians (beetroot soup – ed.). As a colleague of ours already noted, Ukrainians include borscht in the intangible heritage list, while the Russians have been successfully preparing it for a long time in the form of space nutrition,” he said.

According to Ordzhonikidze, the whole story about the inclusion of borscht on the UNESCO list is “simply anecdotal.”

“The Ukrainians and the West have lost all touch with reality in their anti-Russian frenzy. They are using all the programs and mechanisms of UNESCO without exception to support the anti-Russian agenda.”