🎙 Read excerpts from the statement of Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OSCE M.Buyakevich “On gross violations of freedom of the media by some Western OSCE participating States” (meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council, 19.01.23)

💬The attack on one of the fundamental freedoms - media freedom – continues in some #OSCE pS. In the past year, this paranoid struggle against imaginary enemies has resulted in imposition of total censorship, whose manifestations are manifold

📌There is no end in sight to the persecution of professional journalism in the Baltic states. On 5 January, the editor-in-chief of Sputnik Lithuania, M.Kasem, was detained in Riga. The journalist is accused of flouting the EU sanctions regime

❗️Riga has once again demonstrated that media pluralism and the rights of journalists are empty words for it. We demand that OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Teresa Ribeiro, finally make her contribution to stopping repressions carried out by the Latvian regime

🎙 Read excerpts from statement of Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OSCE Alexander Volgarev «International Holocaust Remembrance Day»(meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council, 26 January 2023)

💬 On 27 January 1944, the inhuman blockade of Leningrad, one of the bloodiest pages of the Second World War, was completely lifted. As with the Holocaust, it was a mass and targeted extermination of civilians
 
🗓 On 27 January 1945, the Red Army liberated the largest concentration camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau (Auschwitz). About 4 mln people, including about a million Jews, were murdered in the millstone of that death factory

❗️Attempts to deny the Holocaust, spread of racism, Nazism, neo-Nazism and racial intolerance pose a direct threat to peace and security. It is imperative to include neo-Nazism on the #OSCE human dimension agenda

🎙 Read excerpts from statement of Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OSCE Alexander Volgarev «On the recent Anti-Islamic Attacks in Europe» (meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council, 26 January 2023)
 
💬 Amid the mutually respectful and legally protected existence of all religions and confessions in Russia, we note a serious rise in Islamophobia in the #OSCE area
 
📖 Anti-Islam radicals are still allowed to hold public events in some European countries where they vandalise books and notions sacred to believers
 
❗️The OSCE has accumulated a significant volume of commitments on tolerance and non-discrimination. 2014 OSCE MC Basel tasking on developing declarations on Christiano-and Islamophobia should be finally imlemented
 
📢 We call on North Macedonian OSCE CiO to prioritise the imlementation of this important task

🎙 Read excerpts from statement of Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OSCE Alexander Volgarev «On the double standards approach in implementation of the OSCE commitments in the human rights dimension in some Western Participating States» (meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council, 2 February 2023)

🇪🇺 EU and the 🇺🇸 US have consistently pursued a policy of total politicisation of the human rights sphere, using it to interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign countries, and imposing double standards in their consideration of certain issues
 
🇷🇺 Situation in Russia has been diligently demonised, not shying away from using various OSCE resources and mechanisms. This all looks hypocritical, if not sanctimonious, amid the deplorable human rights situation in the Western participating States of the Organization

❗️We call on Western #OSCE participating States to stop discrediting the very concept of human rights by using the topic only to interfere in the internal affairs of others

🇷🇺🇦🇲 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks during talks with Foreign Minister of the Republic of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan

📍 Moscow, March 20, 2023

💬 As of now, we are the leading trade partner and investor in Armenia’s economy. Last year set a record, with trade almost doubling to about $5 billion (for the time being, we still calculate in dollars, but it is temporary). All of this has helped your country to ensure record high GDP growth of more than 12.5 percent and a surge in business activity.

An important topic at our talks today is cooperation in the Eurasian space, the #CSTO, the #CIS and the #EAEU space, as well as interaction at multilateral venues, including the #UN and the #OSCE.

We will also focus on international security issues, including the Lachin Corridor and Nagorno-Karabakh settlement process, which is one of our priorities.

Read in full

#RussiaArmenia

🇷🇺🇧🇾 Today, Belarus, a state linked to Russia by centuries of fraternal friendship and bonds of mutual assistance, is marking Independence Day.

#OnThisDay in 1944, Minsk was liberated from Nazi German invaders and occupants as a result of well-coordinated Red Army operations. Fighting shoulder to shoulder, our nations made a decisive contribution to the Victory over Nazism.

Today, Russian-Belarusian relations are those of strategic partnership and alliance. Together, our countries continue to overcome serious difficulties and defend their interests on the international scene. They collaborate closely in the field of military and military-technical cooperation and in ensuring collective security.

Moscow and Minsk jointly streamline various institutions of the Union State and promote integration projects in the Eurasian region. Our countries voice common or similar positions on many international issues and cooperate closely in the #CSTO, the #EAEU, the #CIS, the #UN, the #OSCE and other international and regional organisations.

🤝 We congratulate the fraternal people of Belarus on the national holiday. We wish them well-being and prosperity.

#RussiaBelarus #UnionState

🇷🇺🇲🇰 On August 30, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had a telephone conversation with Chairman-in-Office of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (#OSCE) and Foreign Minister of North Macedonia Bujar Osmani with the North Macedonian side initiating the call.

The discussion touched on current issues on the OSCE agenda, with a focus on the systemic crisis in the OSCE, the outlook for appointing the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and heads of its executive bodies for 2024, as well as on the obstacles to agreeing on the OSCE consolidated budget for 2023.

Sergey Lavrov stressed the need to streamlining the OSCE's activities within the framework of the Rules of Procedure, and to resume the drafting and adoption of decisions exclusively in accordance with the fundamental rule of consensus.

We are outraged by the silence of OSCE functionaries - 🇲🇰OSCE CiO Bujar Osmani and Secretary Genersl Helga Schmid in particular - regarding a premeditated shelling attack of the Kiev regime on residential areas in Belgorod, which resulted in the deaths and injuries of civilians, including children. We demand that #OSCE gives a principled reaction to this act of aggression

‼️Malta continues the predecessors' course of one-sided and biased assessments of the situation in #Ukraine. The OSCE Secretary General has blatantly taken the side of the criminal regime in Kiev, without a word of condemnation of the barbaric missile attacks in Belgorod, which resulted in the deaths of dozens of civilians, including children.

‼️In this way, Malta and #OSCE Secretariat are continuing their course towards the forced collapse of the Organization's platform, flouting their mandates.

🇷🇺🇧🇾 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks during a meeting with President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko (Minsk, June 25, 2024)

💬 Thank you for your kind words about the foreign ministries of our countries. We do our best to achieve the strategic goals that you and President of Russia Vladimir Putin have set in foreign policy, and to organise our foreign political activities in a manner that provides diplomatic support for integration.

Yesterday, we signed the Joint Statement on the Main Foreign Policy Tasks of the Union Integration of Russia and Belarus. The statement directs us to always consider the interests of the Union State rather than the interests of Minsk or Moscow separately when strengthening our coordination.

All the agreements concerning the Shanghai Cooperation Organisations have been finalised. As the first act of the Summit in Astana, Belarus will be officially accepted as a full #SCO Member State. Minsk will participate in all events on par with the other members.

🌐 We can report on other matters as well. Yesterday, we held a detailed discussion about the #UN and the #OSCE. You are fortunate in that Belarus was never a member of the Council of Europe, so you did not have to withdraw.

Eurasian security are under discussion as well. Both you and Vladimir Putin have voiced your proposals.

<...>

👉 Mr Aleinik and I discussed how to promote the concept of Eurasian security and get more like-minded Parties involved. I believe this concept has good prospects.

Read in full

#RussiaBelarus #UnionState