Good morning, India! 🌅 शुभ प्रभात, भारत!

📸 Can you guess the location?

🎙Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s reply to a media question on the investigation into the sabotage of the Nord Streams

❓Question: The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency decided that Sweden is not obliged to include in its national quota the 5.8 million tonnes of harmful substances that were released into the air due to the act of sabotage at the Nord Stream gas pipelines. What do you think about this?

💬 Maria Zakharova: This decision shows that Stockholm is trying to avoid paying large fines for exceeding EU-established standards. <...> Thus, they concluded that Sweden is not responsible for the harmful emissions into the environment due to the bombing of the gas pipelines that run between Russia and Germany.

<...>

❗️Far from facilitating a meticulous and unbiased investigation into the deliberate sabotage of the operation of a large international energy facility, the Swedish authorities are not willing to share out its environmental consequences.

The Danish authorities are not interested in a serious investigation into the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines either. Copenhagen and Stockholm continue to reject any interaction with Russia on this issue. In December 2023, the Prosecutor-General’s Office of Denmark refused a request from its Russian counterpart to provide legal assistance in investigating the act of sabotage on the Nord Stream-1 and Nord Stream-2 gas pipelines.

☝️ Despite the artificial obstacles, we will continue insisting on a transparent and depoliticised investigation into these acts with the participation of competent Russian agencies and with Gazprom.

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Dear friends!
On January 25 at 12:00 we invite you to the Russian House in New Delhi for the opening of a photo exhibition dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the complete liberation of the hero city of Leningrad from the fascist blockade.
The exhibition “Call often to my memory, medal “For the Defense of Leningrad...” was provided by the Committee for External Relations of the Government of St. Petersburg.
The siege of Leningrad is one of the most tragic pages in the immortal chronicle of the Great Patriotic War. During the 872-day siege, about a million people died in the city.
The exhibition presents photo-documentary materials that reveal the main events of the tragic history of the siege, about life in surrounded Leningrad, about the courage and perseverance of Leningraders who defended their hometown.
#Leningrad #siege #war #anniversary

📹FM Sergey Lavrov’s address on Russia’s CIS chairmanship in 2024 (January 23, 2024)

💬 From January 1, 2024, Russia took up the chairmanship of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

• The Chairmanship Concept, adopted by the President of the Russia, outlines our priorities for further cooperation within the CIS. <...>

• We plan to pay special attention to deepening economic interaction, above all, in food and energy security, as well as in industrial cooperation, transport and logistics, the environment, innovation, and digital transformation.

• At the same time, our guiding principle will be the interconnectivity of the economies of the CIS states and the Eurasian Economic Union <...>.

• Naturally, against the backdrop of global instability and increased tensions along the CIS external borders, issues of ensuring security in all dimensions will be on the agenda. <...>

• Our attention will also focus on the task of improving foreign policy coordination. The development of joint political statements on relevant international and regional issues has become a good tradition. <...>

• Plans call for an expansion of cultural and humanitarian ties as a key area of work within the CIS. <...>

• We value the solidarity of the CIS countries in the fight against the glorification of Nazism and the falsification of history. We will continue with our joint efforts to defend the truth about our common past. <...>

• We are going to pay a great deal of attention to improving the image of the CIS on the global stage and developing its contacts with friendly organisations <...>

☝️The CIS continues to make a major contribution to the strengthening of stability in the Eurasian space and to promoting wide regional cooperation.

🇷🇺 Russia intends to conduct active work to further improve its authority as a representative and efficient dialogue and cooperation platform. We will continue to develop multilateral cooperation with our partners based on the principles of equality, mutual respect and neighbourliness.

#CIS2024

Good morning, India! 🌅 शुभ प्रभात, भारत!

📸 Can you guess the location?

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine

📍 New York, January 22, 2024

Key talking points:

💬 The vast majority of unbiased experts clearly see that the West's continuing support for the Kiev regime is the key factor that is preventing a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine crisis. Support is provided despite its obvious agony and inability to fulfil the goal of inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Russia that was dictated to it by its higher ups, or, as they started saying recently, of at least degrading my country.

• Despite the complete failure of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the battlefield, the Western patrons of the Kiev regime continue to push it, like maniacs, to continue this meaningless military confrontation.

☝️ We were forced to start the military operation against a criminal regime that went too far, emboldened by impunity, and was unwilling, despite our numerous efforts over many years, to say no to the war against its own citizens in southern and southeastern Ukraine and its policy of total discrimination against Russian-speaking Ukrainians, who are still the majority in that country.

• It is surely time for Europeans – I am addressing sane Europeans – to wake up and understand that with the help of Vladimir Zelensky’s regime, the US is not only waging a war against Russia, but also pursuing the strategic objective of sharply weakening Europe as an economic rival.

• Let me remind you that we have never renounced peaceful methods and have always been ready for negotiations.

❗️ The majority of people in Ukraine are beginning to realise who their real enemy is and who has been misleading them for years by demonising Russia, spreading lies about it, and “cancelling” our shared history.

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#Announcement

🎙 Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova will hold a briefing on current foreign policy issues at approximately 1 pm MSK (10:00 am GMT) on January 26.

⏰ Accreditation is open until 11 am on January 25.

🇷🇺🇺🇳 On January 23, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had a meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as part of his visit to New York to participate in the UN Security Council meetings on Ukrainian and Middle East issues.

They had a substantive discussion of various aspects of cooperation between Russia and the UN, as well as key issues on the international agenda.

Both Sides noted the importance of further strengthening the central coordinating role of the United Nations in global politics with account of the full range of its member states’ opinions.

Sergey Lavrov also emphasised that it is imperative for all members of the UN Secretariat to strictly observe the principles of impartiality and equidistance in full compliance with the UN Charter.

#RussiaUN

⚡️ Russian Foreign Ministry Statement on the destruction of a Russian Il-76 military transport

💬 On the morning of January 24, the Kiev regime committed another terrorist act by downing a Russian Il-76 military transport plane near the village of Yablonovo in the Korochansky District, Belgorod Region. It was carrying 65 Ukrainian POWs for an agreed-upon exchange. All of them, as well as six crew members and three Russian officers on board the plane were killed.

❗️ The plane was hit by a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile system from the village of Liptsy in the Kharkov Region.

This is yet another atrocity committed by Zelensky’s criminal regime. Immediately after the plane went down, they made a misanthropic statement about the victory of the “valiant Armed Forces of Ukraine.” However, the office on Bankovaya Street changed its rhetoric as soon as it became known that the plane was carrying Ukrainian servicemen to an exchange site. They then began denying their involvement in the crash.

☝️ Kiev was well aware of the planned exchange. It also knew how the POWs were to be moved and by what route. The attack against the plane was a deliberate act. This terrorist act clearly demonstrates the Kiev regime’s inability to negotiate.

This is not the first cruel murder of Ukrainian POWs by the Zelensky junta. On July 29, 2022, the Banderites fired a missile at the penal colony in Yelenovka (DPR) where militants from the Azov battalion had been held captive. Over 50 people were killed and more than 70 wounded.

‼️ We resolutely condemn the Kiev regime’s terrorist act in the Belgorod Region. All those involved, including the organisers and executors from the Ukrainian military and civilian officials will be identified and held responsibly under Russian law.

This action shows once again the criminal nature of the neo-Nazi dictatorship in Kiev. Its leaders are indifferent to human life. They treat people as “expendable material” and kill them on orders from their Western bosses with Western-supplied arms.

It is perfectly obvious that the Zelensky criminal regime, nurtured by the US and its NATO satellites, poses a substantial threat not only to Russia but also to Ukraine, its ordinary citizens and the rest of the world. Being in agony, this regime can commit the most heinous atrocities.

👉 We believe international organisations, national governments and the world public must denounce this terrorist act and other crimes committed by the Kiev regime. Silence can only mean support for the regime’s barbarous nature and terrorist actions.

Good morning, India! 🌅 शुभ प्रभात, भारत!

📸 Can you guess the location?