🛰 On October 4, 1957, a small metallic sphere with four rod antennas burst into Earth's orbit... BEEP... BEEP... BEEP!

The entire world witnessed a historic event — the launch of Earth's first artificial satellite.

Sputnik-1 was in essence an aluminium spherical device, 58 centimetres in diameter and 83.6 kg light. Its body was sealed and protected the internal equipment from external factors. Inside, there were two radio transmitters operating on frequencies of 20.005 and 40.002 MHz, which sent out the iconic "beep-beep" signals, heard and recorded by amateur radio operators around the world. The four external antennas, ranging from 2.4 to 2.9 metres in length, ensured stable signal transmission. The satellite had no propulsion system and orbited the Earth solely due to the impulse given at launch.

🚀 A two-stage R-7 launch vehicle, developed by a team of Soviet engineers under the leadership of Sergey Korolev, was used to place Sputnik-1 into orbit.

🌐 The launch of Sputnik-1 was not only a great technological achievement, but also a symbol of the dawn of a new era — the Age of Space.

Ever since, dozens of nations have launched their own satellites — thousands are orbiting the planet this very moment.

💫 We are proud to say that ours — Sputnik-1 — was the very first!

🎙 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s article for Russia in Global Affairs magazine «The UN must recover its central role in coordinating actions by nations» (October 4, 2024)

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💬 The 79th Session of the UN General Assembly has recently completed the general debate, where President Vladimir Putin tasked me to represent the Russian Federation.

Does the Pact for the Future have a future?

Held as usual in the last week of September, the UN’s High-Level Week included the so-called Summit of the Future. The idea to convene it came from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and Russia has met this idea with understanding considering that the UN is sinking deeper and deeper into a crisis, and something has to be done about it. Russian diplomats joined efforts to prepare this meeting and acted in a sincere and honest way, even if we did not have any illusions in this regard. In fact, there were quite a few major UN events in the past which failed to go beyond bombastic declarations that were forgotten soon after their adoption.

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In 2015, the UN Summit on Sustainable Development adopted grand plans to fight poverty and inequality. In the end, they turned out to be empty promises in the face of the unwillingness of the Western countries to give up their neo-colonial practices of siphoning off the riches of the world for their own benefit. <...>

The current UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, just like Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon before him, has put forward an initiative under the slogan of giving a new start and resetting global cooperation.

This is a wonderful idea. Who could disagree?

But what global cooperation is there to talk about, when the West has trampled all those unshakeable values of globalisation we have been hearing about from everywhere for so many years. These perorations were designed to convince us that they would give everyone equal access to the goods of modern civilisation. Where is the inviolability of property, the presumption of innocence, freedom of expression, access to information, fair market competition under fair and constant rules?

How can we discuss global cooperation when the Western countries have unleashed a real war of sanctions against more than half, if not the majority, of the countries of the world, and the US dollar has been crudely turned into a weapon against undesirable countries? <...>

Key talking points:

• It is not too late to give the UN a new lease on life.

• It has gotten to the point where the West wants to turn the UN into an instrument for attaining itself-seeking goals.

• [The West is] hindering the badly needed change in the system of forming the UN Secretariat, where the key posts have been seized and are “inherited” by representatives of the Western minority.

• There must be an honest discussion by all UN member states, and not like a process in which the Pact for the Future was prepared – without a single plenary session of talks attended by all countries.

• Establishing a space of equal and indivisible security in Eurasia is crucial amid the all-encompassing processes unfolding in the macro-region.

• Our initiative is based on the understanding of the need for states and multilateral organisations of the Eurasian region to assume responsibility for ensuring their own security under the ‘Eurasian solutions to Eurasian problems’ formula.

***

❗️ Today, the international community once again faces massive challenges, just like during World War II, which require united efforts rather than confrontation and desire of global dominance. Russia will always advocate collective efforts, truth and the rule of law, peace and cooperation in the interests of reviving the ideals set forth by the UN’s founding fathers.

🇺🇳 Working for the honest balance of the legitimate national interests of all countries, we can bring to life the purpose of the #UN as stated in its Charter: “To be a centre for harmonising the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.”