🇷🇺🇸🇦 On March 9, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held talks with Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud now in Moscow on a working visit.

The Ministers reaffirmed their mutual commitment to ensuring continued progress in traditionally friendly Russian-Saudi relations.

🤝 Sergey Lavrov and Faisal Ben Farhan spoke in favour of maintaining a regular Russian-Saudi political dialogue, strengthening inter-parliamentary contacts.

The Ministers compared notes on key items on the global and Middle East agendas focusing on the situation in Syria, Yemen and the Palestinian-Israeli settlement. They agreed to maintain close coordination of Moscow and Riyadh’s efforts at promoting a comprehensive and sustainable settlement of numerous regional conflicts through an inclusive and equal dialogue based on the stakeholders’ legitimate interests and concerns.

☝️ The situation in the Gulf area, including plans for creating a collective security system that would involve the creation of mechanisms for joint response to existing challenges and threats with the participation of all stakeholders, was reviewed in detail as well.

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🇷🇺🇨🇳 Президент России В.В.Путин поздравил Си Цзиньпина по случаю его переизбрания на пост Председателя Китайской Народной Республики.

💬 Решение Всекитайского собрания народных представителей является свидетельством признания Ваших заслуг во главе государства, а также широкой поддержки проводимого Вами курса на дальнейшее социально-экономическое развитие Китая и защиту национальных интересов на мировой арене.

В России высоко ценят Ваш личный вклад в упрочение отношений всеобъемлющего партнёрства и стратегического взаимодействия между нашими государствами. Уверен, что, действуя сообща, мы обеспечим наращивание плодотворного российско-китайского сотрудничества в самых различных сферах. Будем и дальше координировать совместную работу по важнейшим вопросам региональной и международной повестки дня.

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#РоссияКитай

🇷🇺🇨🇳 President of Russia Vladimir Putin sent his greetings to Xi Jinping on his re-election as President of the People’s Republic of China.

💬 The decision of the Chinese National People's Congress is a sign of the acknowledgement of your achievements as the head of state, as well as wide support of your policy focused on China’s socioeconomic development and protection of its national interests on the global stage.

Russia highly values your personal contribution to strengthening the relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction between our states. I am confident that, by taking joint actions, we will ensure the further growth of beneficial Russian-Chinese cooperation in various spheres. We will continue to coordinate our joint work related to the most important issues on the regional and international agenda.

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#RussiaChina

📆The most devastating air raid in the history of World War II

In the early hours of March 10, 1945, 78 years ago, 325 American B-29 heavy bombers took off from air bases in the Marianas and headed for Tokyo.

As the Historical Materials section on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website says, the US Air Force dropped 1,665 tonnes of bombs and napalm on the Japanese capital, killing ❗️83,000❗️ people and wounding another ❗️41,000❗️. According to other sources, the death toll exceeded 100,000 people. As a result, 16.5 square miles of the city, or more than 40 percent of the housing stock, were burned down, and 180,000 families were left homeless. From a military point of view, the rationale for bombing Tokyo is debatable. It was an act of intimidation and retribution. Napalm destroyed the predominantly wooden city and led to a fire tornado.

No more than 15 percent of buildings survived in Tokyo, mostly European-style buildings such as ministries, embassies and banks. The Americans dropped incendiary bombs using a special technique to create fire rings. Wherever the Japanese ran, they ran into a wall of fire. To get away from the fire, the people jumped into the water. There are many canals and even community swimming pools in Tokyo. However, the heat was so strong that the water was boiling in the small water bodies, and people died from stuffy heat in larger ones.

⁉️ Which aspect of this bombing was in line with international law? The people and forces implicated in crimes must be held accountable. Later, this happened at the Tokyo and Khabarovsk trials, and the true culprits from among the Japanese leadership were there. But before that, the civilians were made a target of the retribution attacks. Isn't that blasphemous?

The Soviet journalist Nikolai Bogdanov was surprised to note that “the Mitsui aircraft factories and the Mitsubishi cannon factories sitting on the outskirts of the city remained unaffected by the bombing.”

Of the 206 Japanese cities, 98 were air bombed and shelled by naval artillery. As a result of the raids, 2,210,000 buildings, about a quarter of Japan's housing stock, were turned into rubble or burned. Civilian losses from aerial bombardments and artillery shelling vary among sources and stand at anywhere from ❗️500,000❗️ to ❗️900,000❗️people.

However, as we know from history, the cold-blooded devastation caused by the carpet bombing and the US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not make the Japanese government surrender. The decision to stop resistance was made only after the Red Army joined the war.

☝️The bombings of Tokyo, Dresden, and other peaceful cities are part and parcel of the American historical traditions of warfare. The mass killings of civilians in the enemy country are considered acceptable if they pay off in military terms and intimidate the enemy. Then, they came up with a name for it: collateral damage. They have such a special term. In the same way, the Germans did not consider their atrocities to be war crimes, in fact the genocide of the Soviet people.

✍️ Ambassador Anatoly Antonov's article "Sanctions against Russia: a defective tool of political coercion" exclusively for the Russian Newspaper "Kommersant"

🔹Washington is trying to justify its policy of "hellish" sanctions against foreign competitors with high-sounding, but pseudo-plausible pretexts. It is clear that this is all about just self-interest.

🔹The United States is trying to punish us for such an unheard-of audacity as defending - after exhausting all political and diplomatic methods - the fundamental interests of national security.

🔹Washington has been stamping restrictions essentially on a weekly basis – against entire sectors of Russian economy, various companies. The convoluted restrictions hit vital areas.

🔹The apogee of destructive initiatives of Westerners under the aegis of Washington is the use of terrorist methods to achieve their own opportunistic purposes.The example is the explosion of the Nord Streams.

‼️The Russian economy has withstood this literally unprecedented and comprehensive onslaught. No market collapse has occurred.

🔹The recent statistical forecasts of the International Monetary Fund predict a growth of Russian economy already this year.

🔹The U.S. recognizes the high professionalism of the Russian government and financial regulators.

🔹We can only thank the instigators of sanctions for the artificially created opportunity to really engage in advanced import substitution. First of all, in the field of new technologies.

🔹Economists are beginning to admit that behind Washington's sanctions escapades lies a desire to provide artificial market advantages for itself. To squeeze out rivals.

☝️The United States, believing in its own impunity, does not disdain anything to keep its elusive geo-economic dominance.

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🎙 Интервью Министра иностранных дел Российской Федерации С.В.Лаврова программе «Большая игра» на «Первом канале» (10 марта 2023 года)

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Ключевые тезисы:

• Россия, действительно, объявлена экзистенциальной, немедленной «угрозой», которую необходимо преодолеть в самые короткие сроки. Следующей угрозой – пока еще в формулировке «долгосрочный, постоянный вызов Западу в мире» – объявлен Китай.

• Возврата к старому быть не может. Нас не надо в этом убеждать. Мы для себя давно сделали все выводы. Мир ничему не научила история между двумя мировыми войнами.

• В отношении России употребляются предельно агрессивные выражения, риторика и действия, которые выражаются прежде всего в незаконных и беспрецедентных санкциях. Они показывают, что Запад действительно для себя решил, что это война не на жизнь, а на смерть.

• Философия «с нами или с Россией» вынашивалась Евросоюзом с самого начала геополитической ситуации, сложившейся после исчезновения СССР.

• [о ситуации в Грузии] Очень похоже на киевский «майдан». Никаких сомнений нет, что закон о регистрации неправительственных организаций, получающих зарубежное финансирование в размере 20% от своего бюджета, был лишь поводом для того, чтобы начать попытку силовой смены власти.

• В Грузии оппозиция не то что может, а обязана делать то, что хочет, а в Молдове протесты против действующей власти осуждаются. Потому что оппозиция в 🇬🇪 Грузии отражает интересы Запада, а оппозиция в 🇲🇩 Молдове отражает иные, а западные интересы в этой стране отражает правительство и президент.

• [о теракте в отношении СП-1 и СП-2] Они не знают, что возразить, особенно после того, как С.Херш опубликовал результаты своих изысканий и обещал продолжить публиковать дополнительные оценки, дополнительные выводы. Для нас это послужило дополнительным фактором, заставившим внести резолюцию Совета Безопасности ООН, которая сейчас обсуждается, и которую обязательно поставим на голосование. <...> Эта грубейшая террористическая атака не останется нерасследованной.

⚡️Enjoy The Russian Embassy Weekly
# 2️⃣8️⃣4️⃣⚡️

Main topics:

💐President's Greetings to Russia’s women on International Women’s Day
🎙Sergey Lavrov’s interview with Channel One’s The Great Game political talk show
🔹Press release on Ukraine crisis
🔹Sergei Shoigu inspects construction works aimed at restoring infrastructure facilities in Donbass
🔹Ambassador Anatoly Antonov‘s answer to a media question
✍️Ambassador Anatoly Antonov's article "Sanctions against Russia: a defective tool of political coercion" exclusively for the Kommersant
🔹Minister-Counselor Andrey Ledenev's answer to a media question
🔹Comment by Press Secretary of the Russian Embassy in the USA Igor Girenko
🚀Legendary cosmonaut, the first woman in space Valentina Tereshkova was born on March 6, 1937
📆The First Man in Space Yuri Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934
🔹The US Air Force dropped 1,665 tonnes of bombs and napalm on Tokyo, killing 83,000 people on March 10,1945

#Анонс

⚡️ 16 марта в 15:00 (орнт) состоится брифинг официального представителя МИД России М.В.Захаровой по текущим вопросам внешней политики.

В связи с предпринимаемыми мерами по профилактике распространения коронавирусной инфекции и с учётом рекомендаций ВОЗ о переводе мероприятий в формат телеконференций в эфире будут даны ответы на вопросы представителей СМИ, направленные в колл-центр. Прошедшие аккредитацию журналисты получат подробные разъяснения по техническим аспектам направления вопросов.

❗️ Аккредитация открыта до 14:00 15 марта.

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with Channel One’s The Great Game political talk show (March 10, 2023). Part I

#CollectiveWest

Key points:

🔹In Georgia, the opposition not only can but must do what it wants, whereas protests against the current government in Moldova are being criticised. That’s because the opposition in Georgia reflects the interests of the West, while the opposition in Moldova reflects other interests, and the government and the president of Moldova reflect Western interests.

🔹Two similar situations involving protests are unfolding literally before our eyes. In Tbilisi, the protests were far from being peaceful. As you could see, the demonstrators overturned cars and used tear gas and smoke bombs. I don’t think any of that is taking place in Chisinau. Even if it were a similar action, the reaction to the protests would be fundamentally different. I think all countries neighbouring the Russian Federation should be aware of the dangers associated with this path of being drawn into the zone of interests and responsibility of the United States. This zone is now spreading all over the world.

☝️They (the “collective West”) were waiting for a pretext to get their hooks in Russia and the right time to do it. Russia began to be seen as too independent a player. We were gaining economic strength, not as great as China or India, but still we remained among the leading economies. We have a strong moral and political position on the international stage. We speak out on key issues for developing countries from the standpoint of justice and offering a critique of the system which the West would like to maintain in the post-colonial era based on its striving to live off others.

🔹Russia has indeed been declared an existential, immediate “threat” to be handled in the immediate future.

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#Announcement

🎙 Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova will hold a briefing on current foreign policy issues at 15:00 MSK (approximately) on March 16.

☝️ In light of measures taken to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and WHO recommendations on holding public events via teleconferencing, the Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson will answer media questions received by the call centre. Accredited journalists will be sent detailed information concerning the technical aspects of submitting questions.

❗️ Accreditation is open until 14:00 on March 15.

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with Channel One’s The Great Game political talk show (March 10,2023). Part II

#RussiaUSA

Key points:

🔹In principle, the Americans are very good at antagonising people. They know many ways of doing this. Probably, the main method is their manners that cannot be called diplomacy. In effect, they consist of a form of dictate and demands.

🇷🇺🇺🇸 Russian Ambassador in Washington Anatoly Antonov, whom you know well, has enormous problems in maintaining contacts with his counterparts, as do his employees. This is not because we are so eager to meet daily with employees of the US Department of State or other agencies but because the emerging questions are not about the future of the universe but about specific living conditions of Russian diplomats in the US and US diplomats in Russia. Washington is making it harder for them to do their jobs and it is hard even to discuss with those in charge these humanitarian issues, issues of common human sense.

🇷🇺🇺🇸 We (Sergey Lavrov and Antony Blinken) only discussed strategic stability and Ukraine. I do not want to go into the details of how this short ten-minute conversation took place. As a matter of principle, everything I heard is in line with the well-known publicly voiced and repeatedly emphasised US position in this regard. I have given detailed explanations. Especially with regard to New START. Russia's position and the forced nature of its decision to suspend the Treaty were explained in great detail by Russian President Vladimir Putin in his address to the Federal Assembly. There is nothing new to be said here either.

🇷🇺🇺🇸 We talked constructively, without emotion, shook hands when we met and parted. It was a normal conversation. I don’t know how much it reflects the US’s understanding of the abnormality of the situation when they cut off all channels of communication.

❗️This once again shows how low we have all fallen in our multilateral diplomacy when a natural meet “on the sidelines” – of which there are hundreds – is now seen as an opportunity to speculate on whether or not there is a breakthrough and whether or not there is any hope that a dialogue will be restored. This is regrettable and sad.

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🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with Channel One’s The Great Game political talk show (March 10,2023). Part III

#PeaceTalks

Key points:

🔹CIA Director William Burns said yesterday that it does not appear that Russia is interested in a peace settlement. Is it clear that Zelensky is “interested?” He again said, at the same time as Mr. Burns, that he would never sit at the negotiating table with Vladimir Putin.

☝️We keep saying that we are not walking away from negotiations, but we do not beg for them. We do not see any possibility for negotiation right now. We emphasise this in the face of a relentless wave of statements on “how bad it is that Russia does not want to negotiate.” ❓Has anyone read what Zelensky says? Does anyone remember the decree he signed in September 2022 outlawing negotiations? They look at you insolently when you remind them of this, and they can’t say anything back. This is also part of psychological warfare, a component of the policy we are talking about that is aimed at ensuring that no one dares cross them.

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🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with Channel One’s The Great Game political talk show (March 10,2023). Part IV

#NordStream

Key points:

🔹Publicly and in writing on behalf of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, we sent inquiries to his counterparts in Germany, Denmark and Sweden. We have sent multiple official diplomatic notes to these countries asking them to give us answers and allow us to participate in inspecting the section of gas pipelines that had been targeted by the terrorists. No clear reaction followed, except them saying they will figure it out themselves.

☝️They aren’t sure what to say, especially after Mr. Hersh published his findings and vowed to continue to publish additional estimates and findings. For us, this came as an extra factor that forced us to submit a UN Security Council resolution, which is now being discussed, and which we will definitely put to a vote. We want investigations.

🔹As you may be aware, in Western states, in their basic laws, an attack targeting critical infrastructure is equated to a declaration of war. In this particular case, if it’s established that a terrorist attack against a NATO country’s critical infrastructure was perpetrated by another NATO country it will bring up the question about the rationale for NATO, which declares as its goal protecting member countries from outside attacks, but at the same time makes possible attacks on one of its members from within the bloc. This is a rather interesting question.

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🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with Channel One’s The Great Game political talk show (March 10,2023). Part V

#RulesBasedOrder

Key points:

🔹As regards the consequences and possible global aspects of the Ukrainian crisis, the word “demolition” is quite fitting. In my remarks, I have repeatedly mentioned an emerging multipolar world order. This transition is not something that will come to an end quickly – rather, it will take an entire historical era. I am convinced of this.

🔹The West’s global positions have considerably weakened – yet its influence in the economic, technological, and military spheres remains strong. They are making attempts to compensate for their relatively weakened positions by amplifying their aggressive efforts, particularly in the military and political areas, and suppressing their competitors through illegitimate methods.

‼️I am referring to the “rules” that the West wants to use as the basis of a world order where they dominate. In Georgia, protesters can do anything they want – whereas in Moldova, nothing is permitted. The Iranian school poisonings have been the subject of an international investigation, while the Nord Stream explosions are considered nonsense and being ignored. Iranian warships docking in a Brazilian port is seen as a bad thing – but sovereign countries have the right to choose their partners. ❓Why not apply this principle to relations between India, Russia and other countries?

🔹UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has claimed recently that the Falklands belong to the UK because this is what the people who live there want. ⁉️But didn’t the people of Crimea speak out expressing their desire to be part of Russia again? There are plenty of such examples.

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🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with Channel One’s The Great Game political talk show (March 10,2023). Part VI

#WorldWarII

Key points:

🔹There can be no return to the old order. The West also says that business as usual is out of the question. There is no need to persuade us of that. We drew all the conclusions quite a while ago. The world has learned nothing from a period of history between the two world wars in the 20th century. We, our leaders have never, directly or indirectly, called into question at the official level the alliance that made it possible to defeat Adolf Hitler.

☝️True, there were numerous studies; scientists, politicians, opposition figures wrote that the [US] lend-lease plan had not been of much help for us and that [the Allies] had opened the Second Front when it became clear that the Soviet Union would win single-handedly. It was recalled that France and England were negotiating a non-aggression arrangement with Hitler even before the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, sought to get him to strike east, and much else. Historians are studying this. But we have never – not in any speech by our leaders (including the Victory Day addresses by the President of Russia on Red Square) – allowed ourselves to cast a shadow of a doubt on the alliance that had rallied us in the fight against Hitler.

‼️ But our Western colleagues began doing just that at the official level long before the Ukraine events, putting equal blame on the Soviet Union and Hitler. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact allegedly “triggered” World War II. They do not even mention the fact that Paris and London signed the same pact with Hitler a year earlier. The Munich Betrayal and Poland’s role in it is a taboo subject. History textbooks have long interpreted the opening of the Second Front as a turning point in World War II.

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🎙 Выступление С.В.Лаврова на открытии учредительного конгресса Международного движения русофилов (Москва, 14 марта 2023 года)

💬 Разрешите выполнить почётную миссию, зачитать обращение Президента Российской Федерации В.В.Путина.

[Из приветствия В.В.Путина участникам и гостям конгресса]: Сердечно приветствую вас по случаю открытия первого конгресса Международного движения русофилов. <...>

Участников конгресса объединяет искренняя любовь к России, её истории и культуре, интерес ко всему, что связано с нашей страной. Мы высоко ценим вашу твёрдую решимость противостоять русофобской кампании, стремление развивать диалог и взаимовыгодное гуманитарное сотрудничество. Нет сомнений, что ваш форум пройдет в конструктивном, созидательном ключе, даст старт перспективным совместным проектам и инициативам, направленным на упрочение дружбы, доверия и взаимопонимания.

💬 Мы никогда не дружим с кем-то против кого-то.

В период ожесточённой гибридной войны мы никого не заставляем занимать ту или иную позицию. Страны глобального Юга, Мировое большинство, в состоянии сделать выводы сами.

Мы не пытаемся сдерживать кого-то от реализации законных интересов. Но когда заявляют о необходимости подчинить весь мир Североатлантическому альянсу, что уже Азия – это территория, где он должен командовать всем, я думаю, что чувство справедливости, присущее русскому народу и подавляющему большинству всех мировых цивилизаций, должно сказать своё веское слово.

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⚡️ 14 марта С.В.Лавров направил письма Генеральному секретарю ООН А.Гутеррешу, Председателю ГА ООН Ч.Кёрёши, Действующему председателю ОБСЕ Б.Османи и Генеральному секретарю ОБСЕ Х.Шмид, в которых привлёк внимание к вопиющим нарушениям общечеловеческих и конституционных прав православных верующих на Украине.

В основе этих нарушений – репрессивная политика киевского режима, направленная на уничтожение Украинской православной церкви (#УПЦ).

В письмах приводятся многочисленные факты гонений на каноническую православную церковь:
❌ массовый захват храмов УПЦ и принудительная незаконная ликвидация их общин под видом якобы добровольных переходов в другую юрисдикцию,
❌ так называемые ограничительные меры («санкции») в отношении епископов канонической православной церкви,
❌ лишение ряда её архиереев украинского гражданства,
❌ моральное и физическое давление на священников и прихожан.

Действия украинских властей расцениваются С.В.Лавровым как грубейшее нарушение прав и дискриминация православных христиан на Украине, что противоречит ряду общепризнанных международно-правовых документов – Уставу ООН, Всеобщей декларации прав человека, Декларации о ликвидации всех форм нетерпимости и дискриминации на основе религии или убеждений и другим.

Недавнее решение киевских властей выселить из Киево-Печерской лавры монахов расценено Министром как стремление под надуманным предлогом с помощью репрессий лишить каноническую православную церковь одной из своих главных святынь. Это по существу пик гонений на каноническое православие на Украине.

Министр иностранных дел России призвал международных руководителей:
👉 дать принципиальную оценку неправомерным действиям украинского режима в отношении УПЦ,
👉 потребовать от Киева прекратить произвол и репрессии против канонической православной церкви,
👉 неукоснительно соблюдать взятые Украиной обязательства по общепризнанным международным документам,
👉 не допустить принудительного выселения монахов из Киево-Печерской лавры.