Russia Presses Hard for 'Eastern European' UN Chief

Russia's envoy to the United Nations has said his country sees as a "priority" the appointment of a Eastern European to the top job.

There are, however, good candidates from other regions as well, TASS news agency quotes Vitaly Churkin as saying.

His comments come ahead of a straw poll at the UN Security Council - of which Russia is a permanent member - on the candidates seeking to take over from Ban Ki-moon at the beginning of 2017.

Bulgarian Irina Bokova, the head of UN cultural body UNESCO, is among the "Eastern European" candidates alongside several contenders from Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, Slovakia, Montenegro and Moldova.

She received the third-best result in the previous vote following former Portuguese PM and UNHCR head Antonio Guterres and Slovenia's former President Danilo Turk.

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