✍️ Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s greetings to the organisers of and participants in a commemorative meeting on the 79th anniversary of Victory over militarist Japan and the end of the World War II

💬 It is a great honour and privilege for me to send my greetings to the participants in the commemorative meeting organised by the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation to mark the 79th anniversary of Victory over militarist Japan and the end of World War II.

Today, we remember the feat accomplished by the Soviet soldiers. They formed a single front with the people of China and Mongolia and had to bear the brunt of the aggressive push by the Japanese militarist regime, including in the heat of the battles of Lake Khasan and Khalkhin Gol River, and all this happened before Hitler staged his treacherous invasion of the Soviet Union.

The fact that we emerged victorious from these battles was instrumental in terms of military and foreign policy affairs for securing our far eastern borders. In 1945, our country made a decisive contribution to delivering a final blow to the Japanese militarist regime.

Unfortunately, the collective West has been stepping up its efforts and multiplying attempts to rewrite history by whitewashing those who stained their names forever by perpetrating war crimes and crimes against humanity. Tokyo’s official position consists of refusing to repent the aggression against several countries, including the USSR. Moreover, it persists with its absurd accusations alleging that it was our country that unleashed World War II.

We can see that they have been consistently seeking to falsify facts dealing with the creation of the Tripartite Pact by militarist Japan, Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, as well as the fact that Tokyo offered military, technical and logistics support to the Third Reich during its invasion of the Soviet Union.

At the same time, the Japanese authorities have been intentionally silencing the fact that it was the United States which bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Instead, the annual commemorations in these cities offer a stage for making sacrilegious statements alleging that the threat of using nuclear weapons comes from Russia.

☝️ Against this backdrop, we believe that it is high time that we highlight the courage and valour demonstrated by the Red Army soldiers and officers who defeated the Kwantung Army. Together with its friends in China and Mongolia, the Foreign Ministry has been acting on multiple fronts in its awareness, outreach and educational efforts, as well as commemorative and memorial work to expose more crimes perpetrated by Japan during World War II. We believe that Tokyo’s compliance with the peace-related provisions of its own constitution would strengthen regional and global security.

In conclusion, I would like to thank the senior officials from the Russian Defence Ministry for their initiative to convene this gathering and for making all these effective arrangements. I wish you fruitful work and all the best.

⚡️ Russian Foreign Ministry's Ambassador-at-Large on the Kiev Regime's War Crimes Rodion Miroshnik:

💬 Today's shelling of the Sokol market in Donetsk by the Ukrainian Armed Forces claimed a horrific toll of 13 people being hit, killing three people, including two children, leaving others injured.

According to the latest data of the DNR Joint Centre of Control and Coordination, during the shelling of the Sokol market in Donetsk three people were killed: a girl born in 2011, a teenage boy born in 2009, and a man born in 1989.

Another child – a boy born in 2013 – was moderately wounded.

Another eight people also sustained injuries and wounds from the shelling: men born in 1976, 1984, 1986, 1994, 1996 and 1998, and women born in 1975 and 1988. Two of the victims are in serious condition, the other six – with injuries of moderate severity.

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🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to questions at a meeting with students and faculty of MGIMO University (Moscow, September 2, 2024)

💬 I would like to congratulate all of you on #KnowledgeDay.

I would like to highlight that, according to the statistics, MGIMO graduates hold important positions at the Central Office of the Government of Russia, particularly the Presidential Executive Office. Additionally, two-thirds of them join the Foreign Ministry staff every year. This speaks volumes about the “seal of excellence” associated with the diplomas from this great – without any exaggeration, for me at least – institution of higher learning.

We welcome the fact that MGIMO supplies the Foreign Ministry with most of its staff. We are always eager to welcome those whose qualifications meet the high standards of Russian diplomacy. I would like to address the final-year students: together, we will implement the Foreign Policy Concept approved by President Vladimir Putin in March 2023.

I am certain that you keep up with international news and developments on the global stage. The primary trend is the strengthening of new growth and development centres located outside the historical West.

Regional integration associations, such as the #SCO, the #EAEU, #ASEAN, the #CIS, the #LAS, the African Union, and #CELAC, play a significant role at the current stage of development of the multipolar world order. #BRICS, as it strengthens its influence and authority, increasingly acts as an informal global coordinator for these regional integration processes.

The globalisation, which the West pro-actively promoted for years, has been accepted as a method of interstate relations in the economy, technology and the financial sector. However, this globalisation model is now falling apart.

We will advance integration processes within the EAEU, CIS, SCO, ASEAN, and, of course, strengthen strategic partnership with China, India, Brazil, and all our other like-minded countries, working in the context of forming the Eurasian architecture. There are many, it is impossible to list them all. That is why we have a clear and comprehensible image of the future – multipolarity, based on another key principle of the UN Charter – sovereign equality of the state.

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❗️The essence of Western policy towards Russia has always been based on the assumption that our country is too strong and independent and that something must be done to change this, preferably by pulling it down. History repeats itself. Today, these 50 countries have again been rallied under Nazi banners against Russia, considering the essence of Zelensky’s regime or even the chevrons and flags of the so-called Ukrainian army. <...> Today, all those who show independence and a will to defend their national interests within international law while refusing to play by Western rules, are under threat. It is clear, however, that these attempts are largely an agony of the West.

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We do not seek to embed ourselves into various “schemes” that are being established by Western “rules” without our participation and without consideration of our interests. We will continue to champion widely held principles of international law and the UN Charter in their entirety instead of cherry-picking them as the West does.

President Putin has repeatedly stressed that “we are open to contacts with the countries of the ‘collective West’ on the understanding that they pivot away from their openly hostile course towards our country”. Any unfriendly moves will still be met with a tough response. The ball is not in our court, it is up to those who set out to deliberately destroy their relations with Russia and demonise our land and our nation.

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🇷🇺🇲🇾 President of Russia Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister of Malaysia Anwar Ibrahim met on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum.

💬 President Putin: Mr. Prime Minister, I would like to begin by thanking you for accepting our invitation to come here and attend the Eastern Economic Forum. Tomorrow, we will take part in its plenary session, and I am certain that this will be a useful event for discussing our objectives in bringing the regional economies closer together. In fact, we have many guests here from dozens of countries, which means that you will be able to engage in useful contacts not only with your Russian colleagues, but also with colleagues from other countries.

Of course, I do hope that we will have an opportunity to explore ways to expand our cooperation as part of these efforts. Today, trade between our countries amounts to about $3.5 billion, which can hardly be considered a satisfactory result for us considering the potential we have. In fact, there are many opportunities on both sides.

As you know, Russia pays considerable attention to developing its relations with Southeast Asia and ASEAN. Malaysia plays a prominent role in this association, and will be assuming the chairmanship of ASEAN next year. We sincerely hope that during your chairmanship, we will be able to explore new opportunities for cooperation with this rapidly growing and promising region.

🎊 To conclude my opening remarks, I would like to congratulate you and the Malaysian leadership, as well as the entire nation on Independence Day, the national holiday you have celebrated recently. As far as I know, it is observed on August 31. I would like to use this opportunity to wish the people of Malaysia all the best, prosperity and wellbeing.

#RussiaMalaysia

🇷🇺🇨🇳 President of Russia Vladimir Putin met with Vice President of the People's Republic of China Han Zheng at the Far Eastern Federal University.

💬 President Putin: In October 2024, we will mark 75 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between our countries. That event had a profound impact on our bilateral relations and on development of modern China and our interstate ties.

As per our agreement, we hope to see President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping at the upcoming BRICS summit. I propose holding a bilateral meeting during that event.

Thanks to our joint efforts, relations between China and Russia have reached an unprecedented level. We attach great importance to interregional cooperation. I hope that during our meeting today and our work at the Eastern Economic Forum tomorrow, we will have the opportunity to explore and identify new areas for cooperation.

We are grateful to the President of the People’s Republic of China for sending such a substantial delegation to this forum. I would like to thank you for leading this delegation and for taking part in our joint work.

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We are establishing subsidiaries of Russia’s leading world-class museums, theatres and musical venues here. I know that some performers who are popular with Chinese audiences have visited China many times, and have recently been on another tour. I hope that Vladivostok will also become a prominent hub for cultural exchanges and attract tourists from Russia, from all over the world and especially from China, which is our friend.

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#RussiaChina

🎙 Russia's Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s answer to a media question about the latest US restrictions against Russian media groups

❓ Question: The US Department of the Treasury has announced the adoption of another package of sanctions against the Rossiya Segodnya media group and some of its subsidiaries, including RT, Ruptly and Sputnik. These sanctions will affect many of its executives. What will be Russia’s response to this aggressive US move?

💬 Maria Zakharova: To begin with, these and other US attacks against Russian media outlets, including through the largest US mainstream publications, are the result of operations carefully orchestrated by intelligence services to purge the national and ultimately the global information space of any forms of “dissent.” These preplanned actions are obviously designed to create the media background for the implementation of relevant election decisions.

The latest round of this witch-hunting campaign is rooted in a desire to push society into permanent stress, infect it with artificial phobias, create an image of a hidden enemy, assigning this role to Russia. We know that the United States has the technologies for this and has used them many times before, with disturbing side effects and consequences.

The main goal of the current administration is to scare [or distract?] the Americans with a “Russian threat” and to create an imitation of active work ahead of the elections.

When the authorities resort to such primitive methods of influencing voters, it is evidence of the decline of “liberal values.”

As for the US restrictions on our media outlets, Washington has previously imposed numerous stringent restrictions on them, which is further evidence of the irreversible degradation of the democratic state in the United States and its transformation into a totalitarian neoliberal dictatorship. This is our diagnosis for the American administration, which has reduced media outlets to pawns in its interparty squabbles and is deliberately deceiving the pubic with allegations about somebody’s imaginary interference in “democratic processes.” Nevertheless, there is high demand for truthful information about global developments provided by RT, Rossiya Segodnya and other Russian media resources.

Meanwhile, the United States continues to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, infringing on the freedom of information, imposing its views on others, engaging in electoral engineering worldwide, and thereby provoking crises and conflicts with catastrophic humanitarian consequences.

The actions of the US authorities, which directly contradict their commitments to the freedom of information and media plurality, will not remain unanswered.

❗️ We warn once again that any attempt to expel Russian journalists from the United States, create unacceptable conditions for their work or hinder their professional operation in any other way, including through visa restrictions, will be regarded as grounds for a symmetric and/or asymmetric action against American media outlets.

Today, September 5, marks the tenth anniversary of the signing of the Minsk Protocol

⚠️ This document contained specific agreements between Kiev, Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic for the peaceful settlement of the #Ukrainian conflict, which arose as a result of the coup d'état on Maidan and Kiev's military operation against Donbass that followed.

Later, in February 2015, the “Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements” was adopted. This package was approved by the #UN Security Council. According to its provisions, peace was supposed to prevail in Donbass by the end of 2015, and efforts towards the socio-economic recovery of the region were to begin.

❗️ Faithful and consistent implementation of the Minsk agreements by Kiev was the only chance to bring peace back to Ukraine.

❌ Unfortunately, these agreements were never implemented. The Ukrainian government did not seize the opportunity for peace and instead sought to resolve the conflict by force. Both the former German Chancellor and the former President of France, who were guarantor countries of the Agreement, have admitted and publicly stated that they never intended to honour the agreements. Those who acted as guarantors of the Minsk Agreements cynically used the respite to arm the Ukrainian military and prepare it for a war with Russia.

☝️ In this situation, Russia had no right to step aside. Once we realized that all possible measures of political and diplomatic settlement had been exhausted and there was no other way to protect the people in the LPR and DPR from extermination, Russia recognised the independence of Donbass Republics and launched the special military operation.

#CrisisInUkraine #MinskAgreements