🇧🇷🎙Brazilian Independent Journalist Pepe Escobar on Russophobia, Russian Values, and Shaping the Multipolar World – exclusively for the Russian Embassy in South Africa.

▫️ On President Vladimir Putin, Western Sanctions and Russia's Resilience:

When Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, he had to rebuild Russia from the ground up. As a journalist traveling through Russia in the '90s, I witnessed the chaos of those times. But where is Russia today? The transformation is extraordinary. Moscow, for example, has evolved into the most developed European city. Having lived in most European capitals, I can confidently say that Moscow today is on a whole new level compared to Paris, London, or Rome. This is just one aspect of the broader shift.

☝️ Geopolitically and geoeconomically, Russia has successfully withstood the full force of 15,000 sanctions and the West's initial expectation that Russia would collapse. Look at Russia now: the world’s fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity, a nuclear and hypersonic powerhouse, respected across the Global South.

The collective West is now terrified of Russia. They are shocked by how resilient and powerful Russia has become, and they realize they can’t defeat a nuclear superpower. Unfortunately, some leaders in the US and the European Union are still foolish enough to believe they can. But for those of us who have spent time in Russia, studying and engaging with the country, we understand the real story. From my perspective as an independent analyst, witnessing Russia’s rise has been the pinnacle of my career. It's been a rare privilege to observe and be part of this historic process.

▫️ On Russophobia:

Russophobia is part of a broader agenda to impose a singular worldview. If you don’t adopt their [Western] values, especially when it comes to issues like family and culture, they seek to cancel you. And the excuse is always the same: you’re a “Russian agent,” or a “Chinese agent,” or a “North Korean agent” - they’ll label you anything to justify their narrative.

▫️ On the International Russophile Movement:

This movement is not just about promoting Russia globally - it's about fighting Russophobia and advocating for Russian historical, cultural, and artistic values. It’s about supporting Russian civilization and the Russian perspective of the world. And that, to me, is something that resonates deeply.

➕ Advice for Foreigners Wanting to Visit Russia:

If you’ve ever thought about visiting Russia, now is the time. Buy your one-way ticket! It’s true that direct flights may be limited, but you can always travel through places like Istanbul, Belgrade, Georgia, or Azerbaijan. Take advantage of the Russian three-month visa offer and immerse yourself in Russian culture, history, and daily life. I can promise you that most of you, if not all, won’t want to return to the decaying West. And I speak from experience — having lived in the West myself, I can see the stark contrast.

#TheyAboutUs

🇿🇦 Dr Maurine Musie to represent South Africa at #BRICS Young Scientist Forum

By Weekend Argus

In a significant milestone for South African science, Dr Maurine Musie, a senior nursing lecturer at the University of Pretoria (UP), has been selected to represent South Africa at the #BRICS Young Scientist Forum in Russia from 18 to 22 November 2024.

Renowned for her expertise as a midwife specialist and emerging researcher within UP’s Department of Nursing Sciences, Dr Musie's credentials are impressive — she is the youngest individual to hold a PhD in the University’s Faculty of Health Sciences.

✍️ Read in full

Source: https://www.iol.co.za/

#BRICS #BRICS2024

🎅 Today Father Frost’s birthday is celebrated in Veliky Ustyug of Russia which is considered his native town.

Father Frost (“Ded Moroz” in Russian) became the symbol of Russian winter, New Year and presents long ago.

He originates from the patron saint of Russia Nikolay and ancient Slavic Morozko, the personified element of nature.

❄️ Unlike his other foreign colleagues, Russian Father Frost is accompanied by his granddaughter Snow Maiden (“Snegurochka”). They ride in a traditional Russian “troika” – a sleigh drawn by three horses.

#RussianCulture #FatherFrost #SnowMaiden #NewYear #Christmas #RussianNewYear

🏥 Emergency care service for patients with heart attacks and strokes is being created in Russia’s #Lugansk People’s Republic.

Currently, hospitals in the #LPR are being re-equipped in different areas, but first and foremost, attention is paid to patients with cardiovascular diseases Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said following his visit to the LPR.

As part of his working trip, Mikhail Murashko inspected the hospital No. 7, where a vascular department has been organized – a specialized department for providing emergency medical care to patients with heart attacks and strokes.

#DonbassToday #Lugansk

⚡️Press release on Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s upcoming participation in the G20 Summit

On November 18-19, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will host the #G20 Leaders’ Summit. The Russian delegation will be led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the instruction of the head of state. A majority of the G20 member states’ leaders are expected to take part.

Brasilia regards the G20 as a core element of the polycentric system of international economic relations, distinguished by an effective decision-making mechanism due to its optimal number of members as well as the principle of consensus. The theme of Brazil’s first ever presidency of the forum is “Building a Just World and a Sustainable Planet.”

At the summit, the partners expect to reach consensus agreements, with the process viewed through the prism of the country’s international prestige. A leadership declaration (a non-signature document approved in the absence of objections from the parties) is expected to be the summit’s major practical outcome. <...>

Russia has been actively engaged in developing and coordinating the organisational and substantive aspects of the Brazilian project, having already added advanced domestic solutions on food security and poverty eradication into the database.

The summit in Rio de Janeiro will open with the launch ceremony of the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty. Russia’s planned official connection to this platform will give it another opportunity to raise issues relevant to the global majority at the international level, in particular, counteracting illegal unilateral sanctions and promoting domestic experience. <...>

Russia plays a prominent role in the G20, efficiently influencing the course and direction of negotiations, as well as the content of agreements. Moscow views the platform as an essential forum for global economic governance.

The G20 is extensively used to promote Russia’s ideas on the importance of building an open and non-discriminatory global economy, and abandoning unilateral restrictive measures, trade wars and protectionism. Efforts are taken to draw attention to the long-overdue reform of the global governance architecture to benefit emerging markets, with the focus on ending the dominance of Western powers in international financial, economic and trade institutions, de-dollarisation, and increasing the share of settlements in national currencies.

<...>

Russia has consistently advocated the essential need to depoliticise the G20, which should focus on its direct responsibilities to encourage economic growth and sustainable development. The opponents’ attempts to bring peace and security issues beyond the group’s authority to the G20 agenda are counterproductive; this destructive policy hinders progress in core areas and causes increased division between the members.

❗️Russia views its priority in the G20 as achieving constructive agreements in the forum that consider all member nations’ interests based on consensus.

Moscow seeks a proper and balanced understanding of sustainable development goals with due account of the states’ national interests, takes efforts to effectively use the G20 to promote the democratisation of international financial and economic structures, particularly, the #IMF, #WorldBank and #WTO, and makes steps to diversify mutual settlement mechanisms and build independent trans-border supply chains.

Read in full

#Opinion

Excerpts from Professor Jeffrey Sachs's speech at Cambridge University

📍Cambridge University, October 22, 2024

💬 We are not in any intrinsic war between the US and Russia. And Russia, by the way, despite every single thing that said every single day TRULY does not want more land. It's already 11 time zones. The last thing that they need or want is more land.

The war is about completely different things than everything you and I read about in our [Western] newspapers every day, because our newspapers are telling us stories that ultimately come back to narratives conceived in the US Defense Department and the CIA, and that are completely bogus.

***

The United States? We've never been at peace. All we do is war. And you know what the truth is? We learned it from here (the UK).

Because the British Empire was the most militarized society imaginable.

And unfortunately, the leaders of this country [the UK], and it turns out not to matter which party, because Starmer is as bad as Boris Johnson, all they know is military. It's unbelievable.

What's the first thing that Starmer does when he becomes prime minister? He goes to Kiev to pledge the endless support of the US, by the way, because Britain doesn't do anything. The endless support of the United States to the defeat of Russia. And then he flies across the Atlantic to try to convince Biden to authorize, and authorize means is for the US military to enable deep strikes inside Russia.

That's really a clever (NOT!) thing to do, especially because Putin said, well, then we'd be at war with each other and we'd be forced to reconsider our nuclear strategy. <...> He's not bluffing if Russia is fundamentally threatened.

***

👉 We [the US] provoked the war in Ukraine. We provoked the war in Ukraine, absolutely surely. And we'll do the same with Taiwan and we'll lose any war that happens, but maybe the world will end also over this stupidity and the people in Washington are stupid, I'm telling you. I know them.