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Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement and answers to media questions following the Russia-ASEAN Conference

📍 Jakarta, July 13, 2023

#RussiaASEAN meeting

💬 We have held the annual Ministerial Meeting between Russia and ASEAN Member Countries once again. The meeting involved the Secretary-General of this organisation. We prioritised such aspects as high technologies, digitalisation and smart cities. We had a separate discussion of our collaboration on countering new challenges and threats. Cooperation between #ASEAN and the Eurasian Economic Union (#EAEU) is another issue.

We are expecting ASEAN representatives at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok in September 2023. We have drafted specific plans aiming to expand practical cooperation in various fields and in the interests of all participants.

On #NATO policy in the Asia-Pacific region

💬 It is true that the ASEAN approaches are now going through a serious test because of the desire of the US and its allies to replace the ASEAN-centric security architecture in the Asia-Pacific region, which took shape over decades and suited everyone until recently, with their “Indo-Pacific strategies” and NATO expansion in this region.

Japan and South Korea already told that they are willing to deploy American nuclear weapons on their territory or to acquire their own. This is a seriously dangerous trend.

#JCPOA

💬 I am not very optimistic about the prospects of resuming the JCPOA. Another point is that, along with this stalled and withered process, the Iranians and the Americans are engaged in unofficial and direct contact below the radar on normalising their relations by unblocking Iran’s seized foreign reserves in exchange for deciding the fate of certain US citizens who were charged with breaking the law in Iran.

We will only welcome any improvement in these relations. Once again, this has little to do with the JCPOA.

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🇫🇮 Helsinki has closed all border crossings with Russia starting from 30 Nov under the pretext of Russia allegedly channeling the flows of asylum seekers from Africa and the Middle East to Finland. (Which of course is untrue, though looks less ridiculous against the backdrop of accusations of ‘weaponization’ of time and natural phenomena by Russia.)

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Finnish political establishment having dragged their country into NATO, embarked on the path of Russophobia in line with the general policies of the collective West towards Russia. Finland is about to host foreign military in its territory and does not rule out establishing NATO bases. Seems like border closure is needed to ensure Russians will not send in their omnipresent spies.

Many would go so far as too claim Finland is a peaceful country and cannot threaten Russia. Far from it, as history suggests. Russians could file an impressive list of historical offenses from Finland if they wanted to, starting from as early as the Battle of Poltava in 1709 in which the Finns fought against Russia in the ranks of Swedish army.

Later, when Bolsheviks granted independence to the Grand Duchy of Finland, the neighbour responded with two invasions of the Russian territory between 1918 and 1922, aiming to establish the ‘Greater Finland’ through annexation of Karelia and part of Arkhangelsk governorate from Russia. Both times the uninvited ‘guests’ were thrown out. Throughout 1930s, Finland was forging ties with Nazi Germany.

"If St. Petersburg no longer exists as a large city, then the Neva river would be the best border on the Karelian Isthmus… Leningrad must be liquidated as a large city," President of Finland Risto Ryti told Adolf Hitler in 1941. And Wermacht tried hard, laying siege to Leningrad in 1941-1944.

☝️Modern revanchist elites in Finland justify complicity in Nazi crimes against the Soviet Union, including the siege and imprisoning Soviet people in Finnish concentration camps, by the pursuit of ‘restoring justice’ after the ‘unprovoked’ Winter War of the USSR against Finland. Yet for some reason Finnish nationalists omit some facts – like the extremely hostile stance of then ruling circles of Finland towards the Soviet Union, their close collaboration with the Third Reich, including in military sphere, as well as Helsinki’s refuse of any cooperation with the Moscow against probable Nazi aggression.

❗️Today building fences along a border becomes trendy in the West, despite calls by former chief of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker to ‘build bridges, not walls’. We only hope that Finland’s increasingly Russophobic stance acquired together with NATO membership will not lead to catastrophic consequences.

#russia #finland #nato #russophobia
⚠️ NATO member states continue to intensively arm Ukraine.

There are now plans to provide the Armed Forces of Ukraine with F-16 tactical fighter aircraft. They have been discussing these deliveries for a long time, and a “coalition” of countries, due to transfer the aircraft to the Kiev regime and train Ukrainian pilots, has been established.

☝️ Considering the fact that a substantial part of Ukraine’s airfield infrastructure has been destroyed, these US fighters might be deployed outside the country, that is, in Poland, Slovakia or Romania.

👉 Consequently, NATO is becoming mired in the Ukraine conflict. It is conducting a hybrid war against Russia under the slogan of “saving” Ukraine.

❗️ For its part, the Russian Armed Forces will see any fighter aircraft involved in the conflict on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as legitimate targets for destruction, no matter where the planes take off.

#F16 #NATO #Ukraine #USA
🎙 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the 21st Doha Forum (10 December 2023):

💬 I mentioned the phenomenon of "cancel culture".

☝️ It's not a war of choice. It's the operation which we could not avoid given the years of Ukraine being prepared by the United States and NATO as an instrument to undermine Russia's security.

#russia #lavrov #ukraine #usa #nato
Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
🎙 Briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (Moscow, January 26, 2024)

🔹
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s schedule
🔹 Organising the Russian presidential election abroad
🔹 Ukrainian crisis
🔹 Terrorist attacks of the Kiev regime
🔹 NATO military exercise - Steadfast Defender 2024
🔹 EU - agricultural problems
🔹 Anti-Serbian repression in Kosovo
🔹 The Day of Lifting the Siege of Leningrad
🔹 International Holocaust Remembrance Day

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▪️ #Ukraine #Terrorism

On January 21, Ukrainian neo-Nazis launched a targeted missile and artillery strike against a farmer’s market and retail outlets in the Tekstilshchik residential area, Kirovsky District, Donetsk. This was the most violent attack in recent years, killing 27 civilians, including two teenagers, and injuring another 25 residents.

The premeditated terrorist attack by Ukrainian surface-to-air missiles launched from the Kharkov Region targeting Russian Il-76 military transport aircraft on January 24 was another heinous crime committed by the Zelensky regime. Everyone onboard, including six crew members, three Russian escort officers, and 65 Ukrainian servicemen on their way to a pre-agreed prisoner swap, died on the spot.

Kiev was aware of this flight and its humanitarian mission, yet they issued an order to destroy it.

▪️ #NATO

Against the backdrop of constant calls for Russia to de-escalate, the plans of the North Atlantic Alliance to hold Steadfast Defender 2024, the largest coalition military exercise since the Cold War, raise numerous questions. The manoeuvres amount to an overt provocation. For several months, a joint force consisting of 90,000 personnel from 31 NATO member countries and Sweden will be deployed near the Russian borders, spanning the territory from Norway to Romania.

This step is deliberately aimed at escalating tensions; it raises the risk of military incidents and could lead to tragic consequences for Europe.
MYTH: NATO is the most successful military alliance in history

FACT: All NATO's successes are numerous civilian casualties and destruction of civilian infrastructure resulting from the alliance's operations and missions.

☝️ It was through their military interventions, that the U.S. and its allies dealt a heavy blow to the fundamental principles of international law, which they are now attempting to replace with the so-called ‘rules-based order’ (invented by themselves).

👉 Just look at NATO's ignominious 20-year campaign in Afghanistan, which ended with the disgraceful withdrawal of the coalition forces. Abandoning that country, the NATO forces left it in ruins. According to the findings of the special commission of the Bundestag of Germany, it was concluded that "the mission in Afghanistan ended in strategic defeat" and was "the most expensive and with the largest number of fatalities" operation undertaken by Western countries in modern times.

It was the inability to find a more worthy use for the alliance after the end of the Cold War, coupled with the failure of the "era of large operations" that led Western powers to the decision to return the North Atlantic bloc "back to its roots" – consolidation around confronting the imagined common threat in the form of Russia.

❗️ However, even here NATO's "achievements" – such as the militarization of Europe, escalation of tensions, complicity in the erosion of the foundations of strategic stability – do not contribute in any way to the fulfillment of the main task of any military alliance – ensuring the security of the population of member countries.

#NATO #NatoWarCrimes
MYTH: NATO Enlargement Has Strengthened Europe’s Security

FACT: The alliance’s expansion to the East is one of the key reasons for the current European security crisis.

To prevent that the members could opt for implementing the concept of a united Europe that according to the 1990 Charter of Paris for a New Europe implied the continent free of dividing lines and zones with different levels of security. The Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE), which was at that time in the proccess of transformation into still operating Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), could become a basis for further relationship.

☝️ The strategy of expanding the exclusive influence of the West under the umbrella of NATO was chosen instead of a consolidating model that could have ensured lasting peace and cooperation between the U.S. and Russia and further throughout the Euro-Atlantic space.

❗️Russia has not experienced any progress in its relations with any of the European countries that have joined the North Atlantic Treaty. For the most part, they have radically deteriorated.

Not to mention what happened after the notorious Bucharest decisions of 2008, when Georgia and Ukraine were promised membership in the alliance.

🇬🇪👉 Tbilisi interpreted the step as a carte blanche for aggression, which led to the tragic events of August 2008.

🇺🇦👉 For Ukraine, it took a little more time, but the essence remained the same - the encouragement of this country’s Euro-Atlantic ambitions led to decisions to solve the Donbass problem by force.

#NATO #SecurityCrisis
Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
🎙 Briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (Moscow, April 18, 2024)

🔹 FM Sergey Lavrov’s schedule
🔹 The Ukrainian crisis
🔹 Terrorist attacks by Ukrainian neo-Nazis against Russian medical workers
🔹 The situation around the Zaporozhskaya NPP
🔹 France handing over its nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to NATO’s operations command
🔹Cooperation with ASEAN countries
🔹 On the Moldova's authorities decision to hold a referendum on accession to the EU
🔹 On Japanese Prime Minister Kishida's visit to the US
🔹 International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace

📰 Read
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#Ukraine #KievRegimeCrimes

With obsessive cruelty, fighters from the Ukrainian Armed Forces hunt down the medical workers who are helping the victims of shelling attacks and target them in an attempt to destroy them and prevent them from saving civilians.

Hospitals, outpatient clinics, rural health posts and other medical buildings in the DPR and LPR, as well as the Belgorod, Bryansk, Zaporozhye, Kursk, and Kherson regions, regularly come under fire from neo-Nazis.

☝️ We are not going to leave the above crimes unpunished. The perpetrators will be identified and held accountable to the full extent of the law.

#France #NATO #Sovereignty

Reports from the French Armed Forces General Staff on handing over the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier and its escort combat vessels under NATO’s operations command for the naval drills in the Mediterranean <...> is yet another clear indication that France’s national sovereignty is being progressively eroded in its most important and sensitive dimension, which is nuclear deterrence.

❗️ This and similar decisions made by Paris convince us once again that, when discussing the crisis in European security and the problem of global security, strategic stability and arms control, France’s nuclear arsenal must be considered as one with that of the United States and Great Britain.
Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
🎙 Briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (Moscow, May 8, 2024)

• Victory Day
• BRICS events
• The Ukrainian crisis
• Situation in Moldova
• Aggressive remarks by the French President
• Situation in the Middle East


📰 Read
📺 Watch

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#BRICS

Russia’s chairmanship of BRICS is picking up speed. Over 40 events across three main cooperation areas have already taken place, covering politics and security, the economy and finance, as well as cultural and humanitarian exchanges.

#Ukraine

Just a few days ago EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell admitted clearly once again that the Ukrainian conflict had had a quick peaceful solution since the very beginning, but he personally and on behalf of the European Union did not want the combat to cease. We have talked about this many times (citing Mr Borrell and other EU officials) pointing to the EU’s long-term investments in financing arms supplies to Ukraine, with which they expect to prolong the armed confrontation for at least several more years (in their own words).

This confirms the terrible reality: ordinary Ukrainians are just a tool that Vladimir Zelensky "sold" to the EU members in the name of his own enrichment and immorality, which is used to settle the West’s geopolitical scores with Russia.

#France #NATO #EU

We noted the recent aggressive remarks from the French leadership, which seem to be increasingly frequent. <…> It is noteworthy that the belligerent stance of the occupant of the Elysee Palace is not only met with disapproval among many EU and NATO allies but, crucially, among the majority of French citizens, too.