I've been thinking a bit about this. So technically the UN would be the world authority that would facilitate international voting and decide when an invasion is legitimate and when it's tyrannical, right? So back in 2003 when the UN voted no to the invasion of Iraq and the coalition still did it, shouldn't sanctions be applied in the same way?
I know the international community criticized it and many Americans and citizens from other countries protested against it but nothing really happen for the average American (assuming they had no relation to the industrial-military complex) but still, the war still happened and lasted many years.
Who decides which invasion is legitimate and which isn't? At what point should we as citizens start pressuring others to apply sanctions?
I'm also wondering this because recently a Canadian dude posted something on my country's subreddit and said he was disappointed at my country not sanctioning Russia (my country never has done anything like that) and later Americans also got in there and called us cowards.
So far it seems that it depends what the most powerful countries say and if they have a good propaganda machine or not but I don't know... it's such a bleak scenario.
I'm not saying Russia is doing good or anything, just wondering why some conflicts get more backlash than others.
1. The UN has no real authority, especially amongst the major nations of the world. It is basically useless outside of distributing aid in emergencies.
2. UN General Assembly votes are non-binding. Basically just a bunch of nations stating for the record how they feel on a particular topic.
3. No nation needs the UN's approval to sanction anyone.
4. Security council votes are the closest the UN gets to actually having real power and it can be completely neutralized by one veto vote. 5 nations (America, UK, France, China, Russia) are permanent members of this council and can not be removed. Essentially, Russia can nullify the UN taking any official action against it and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
TL;DR The UN can be completely ignored by any significant power that wants to do what it wants to do. Israel's settlements have been declared illegal for decades and yet they are still there.
Honestly, Sony and (especially, due to Windows and Azure) Microsoft have a better chance of affecting Russia than the UN ever will.