🕯December 3 marks the Day of the Unknown Soldier in Russia, honouring the feat of all soldiers who perished for the Motherland, yet whose names remain unknown.

#OnThisDay in 1966, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Red Army's victory over Nazi forces in the Battle of Moscow, a ceremony of the burial of the unknown soldiers' remains was held in the Alexander Garden near the walls of the Moscow Kremlin. These remains were originally located in a mass grave on the 41st kilometre of the Leningrad Highway and were discovered during construction activities on the road. Back in 1941, during the Battle of Moscow, this very place saw fierce and bloody battles between the Soviet forces and Nazi invaders.

▪️ On May 8, 1967, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Alexander Garden was unveiled. "Your name is unknown, your deed is immortal", — the worldwide famous words were inscribed upon the granite slab on the Tomb. Soviet newspapers noted back then: "...he [the Unknown Soldier] was slain for his Motherland, for his home — Moscow. This is all we know about him."

💬 Marshal of the Soviet Union Konstantin Rokossovsky remarked:

"The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the ancient walls of the Moscow Kremlin shall serve as a monument of eternal glory to the heroes who died on the battlefield for their Motherland.

Henceforth, the ashes of the one who shielded Moscow with his chest rest here".

The Eternal Flame was set at the Tomb. In December of 1997, the Honor Guard was instituted near the Eternal Flame.

In total, approximately two million Soviet and Russian citizens were reported missing in action during the wars and conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries. The Russian Ministry of Defence carries out on a regular basis search operations to perpetuate the memory of heroes who perished for the Motherland.

Russian diplomats abroad are engaged in extensive efforts aimed at preserving historical memory, countering attempts to distort the history of #WWII and to question the Great Victory of the Soviet people.

The Embassies of Russia all across the world ensure the maintenance, repair and restoration of Soviet monuments and war graves.

❗️ Regrettably, as part of a disgraceful campaign to distort history of #WWII, a policy of state vandalism is being pursued in certain countries of Eastern Europe, in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland in particular, with the one aim — to eradicate Russia's memorial heritage — the monuments to Soviet heroes and liberators.

By order of the official authorities, criminal acts are being perpetrated in these countries to desecrate mass graves, when the remains of fallen soldiers are barbarically exhumed for the purpose of their subsequent "reburial in accordance with European practice" in specially designated locations.

🎗 It is prohibited for Russian compatriots in Europe, under the threat (!) of criminal prosecution, to pay tribute to heroes who fought against Nazism. The Russian MFA highlights these outrageous incidents.

The memory of all who sacrificed their lives for our future is and will remain immortal.

#WeRemember

📄 Joint Ministerial Statement of the 35th APEC Ministerial Meeting 2024 (Lima, Peru)

• In reaffirming our commitment to the APEC Putrajaya Vision 2040 of an open, dynamic, resilient and peaceful Asia-Pacific community by 2040 for the prosperity of all our people and future generations, including by implementing the Aotearoa Plan of Action (APA), and under the APEC 2024 theme “Empower. Include. Grow.,” we have advanced APEC’s cooperation agenda through three thematic priorities:

✅ trade and investment for inclusive and interconnected growth;

✅ innovation and digitalization to promote transition to the formal and global economy;

✅ sustainable growth for resilient development. <...>

👉 Empower

• We commend APEC’s work this year in encouraging innovation and digitalization to promote the transition from the informal to the formal economy, including through focused discussions and policy dialogues. <...>

• We recognize the essential role of an enabling, open, fair, non-discriminatory, safer and more inclusive digital ecosystem that facilitates trade, and the importance of enhancing trust and security in the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) <...>

👉 Include

• We emphasize the importance of realizing the economic potential of all. We acknowledge the valuable contributions of persons with disabilities to economic growth in the region, while recognizing the need to provide them with more opportunities. <...>

• We acknowledge the contributions to inclusive economic growth of Indigenous Peoples as appropriate and welcome further dialogues and collaborative efforts focused on capacity-building to increase their participation in regional and global markets. <...>

• We emphasize the importance of assisting the region’s small and medium enterprises, including by embracing digital tools and fostering innovation, expanding financial inclusion initiatives, enhancing supply chain networks <...>.

👉 Grow

• We reiterate our commitment to working together to deliver a free, open, fair, non-discriminatory, transparent, inclusive, and predictable trade and investment environment. <...>

• As we mark the 30th anniversary of the World Trade Organization (WTO), we reiterate our support for the rules-based multilateral trading system, with the WTO at its core. We commit to work towards necessary reform of the WTO, in order to improve all its functions <...>

• We commit to safeguarding secure, resilient, inclusive, effective, sustainable, open and interconnected supply chains. <...>

👉 Strengthening APEC

• We reaffirm our commitment to strengthening APEC as an important and effective economic cooperation forum in the Asia-Pacific region, and reaffirm its voluntary, non-binding and consensus-building principles. <...>

Read in full

🎙️ Intervjuet med Russlands Ambassadør i Norge Nikolay Korchunov, publisert av nyhetsbyrået «Rossija Segodnja» (30.11.2024)

🔗 Les hele intervjuet på norsk

❓De begynte å jobbe som ambassadør i Norge bare et par uker etter at det offisielle Oslo krevde at antall ansatte ved den russiske ambassaden ble redusert. Hvor konstruktive er kontaktene mellom Moskva og Oslo nå? Og er de tilstrekkelige til å løse kritiske problemer, inkludert arbeidet til ambassader?

💬 Nikolay Korchunov:
I motsetning til mange andre land ble historien til de russisk-norske forhold inntil nylig ikke overskygget av noen tragiske sider. Landene våre har aldri vært i krig med hverandre.
Russland var den første staten som anerkjente Norges selvstendighet i 1905. Historiens første kvinnelige ambassadør var den befullmektigede representanten for Sovjetunionen i Norge, Alexandra Kollontaj. Sovjetunionen og Norge kjempet i fellesskap mot tysk nazisme. Den Røde armés offensiv i nordøst-Norge i oktober 1944, som kostet mange sovjetiske soldater livet, markerte starten på landets frigjøring fra nazistenes okkupasjon.

Dessverre må jeg begynne i den nye jobben som ambassadør når bilaterale forhold er på sitt laveste punkt. Russland er ikke initiativtakeren til deres forverring. Norge har selv valgt veien for å stoppe politisk dialog, innskrenke handels- og økonomiske bånd, industrisamarbeid og mellomregionale og grenseoverskridende kontakter. Av alvorlig bekymring er økningen i konfrontasjonen, usikkerheten i forhold og mangelen på dialog om alle relevante spørsmål, inkludert innen sikkerhetspolitikk.

Under disse forholdene ser jeg som hovedoppgave å hindre en ytterligere forverring av bilaterale forhold. Veien til deres normalisering ligger i en gradvis gjenoppretting av forskjellige forbindelser. Dette er ikke en lett oppgave, først og fremst på grunn av manglende tillit til hverandre.

Geografien kan imidlertid ikke endres. Våre land forblir naboer. Vi håper at sunn fornuft vil seire og at Russland og Norge vil gå tilbake til samhandling og løsning av felles problemer.

🔗 Les hele intervjuet på norsk

🔗 Publisert av RIA Novosti 30. November 2024 (les på russisk)

#WeRemember

🕯 On December 3, Russia commemorates the Day of the Unknown Soldier, established to immortalise the heroic deeds of the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the Motherland and remain unidentified.

This day holds special importance for many Russians, symbolising national pride and mourning.

The date was not chosen by chance: on December 3, 1966, a solemn burial ceremony for the remains of an unknown soldier took place in the Alexander Garden near the Kremlin Wall.

👉 Learn more

🎥 © Russian Military Historical Society

#Victory80

🇷🇺 Fundamentals of State Policy of the Russian Federation on Nuclear Deterrence

I. General Provisions

1. These Fundamentals are a strategic planning document in the area of ensuring defence that reflects official views on the essence of nuclear deterrence, identifies military risks and threats intended to be neutralized by the implementation of nuclear deterrence, as well as defines the principles of nuclear deterrence and the conditions for the transition of the Russian Federation to the employment of nuclear weapons.

2. Assured deterrence of a potential adversary from aggression against the Russian Federation and (or) its allies is one of the highest state priorities. Deterrence of aggression is ensured by the totality of the military might of the Russian Federation, including nuclear weapons.

<...>

II. The Essence of Nuclear Deterrence

9. The Russian Federation exercises nuclear deterrence toward a potential adversary, defined as individual states and military coalitions (blocs, alliances), that consider the Russian Federation as a potential adversary and possess nuclear and (or) other types of weapons of mass destruction or significant combat capabilities of general purpose forces.

Nuclear deterrence is also exercised toward states that provide territory, air and (or) sea space under their control, as well as resources for preparing and committing aggression against the Russian Federation.

10. Aggression by any state from a military coalition (bloc, alliance) against the Russian Federation and (or) its allies is considered as the aggression by this coalition (bloc, alliance) as a whole.

11. Aggression against the Russian Federation and (or) its allies by any non-nuclear state with the participation or support of a nuclear state is considered as their joint attack.

III. Conditions for the Transition of the Russian Federation to the Employment of Nuclear Weapons

18. The Russian Federation reserves the right to employ nuclear weapons in response to the employment of nuclear and (or) other types of weapons of mass destruction against itself and (or) its allies, as well as in the event of aggression against the Russian Federation and (or) the Republic of Belarus as participants in the Union State with the employment of conventional weapons, which creates a critical threat to their sovereignty and (or) territorial integrity.

19. The conditions that enable the possibility of nuclear weapons employment by the Russian Federation are as follows:
a) receipt of reliable data on the launch of ballistic missiles attacking the territories of the Russian Federation and (or) its allies;
b) employment of nuclear or other types of weapons of mass destruction by an adversary against the territories of the Russian Federation and (or) its allies, against facilities and (or) military formations of the Russian Federation located outside its territory;
c) actions by an adversary affecting elements of critically important state or military infrastructure of the Russian Federation, the disablement of which would disrupt response actions by nuclear forces;
d) aggression against the Russian Federation and (or) the Republic of Belarus as participants in the Union State with the employment of conventional weapons, which creates a critical threat to their sovereignty and (or) territorial integrity;
e) receipt of reliable data on the massive launch (take-off) of air and space attack means (strategic and tactical aircraft, cruise missiles, unmanned, hypersonic and other aerial vehicles) and their crossing of the state border of the Russian Federation.

20. The decision to employ nuclear weapons is made by the President of the Russian Federation.

21. The President of the Russian Federation may, if necessary, inform the military-political leadership of other states and (or) international organizations about the readiness of the Russian Federation to employ nuclear weapons or of the decision taken to employ nuclear weapons, as well as of the fact of their employment. <...>

Read in full

📄 On 7 November 2024, the Government of the Russian Federation adopted Resolution No. 1510 "On conducting an experiment on testing the rules and conditions for entry into and exit from the Russian Federation of foreign citizens and stateless persons" (hereinafter referred to as "the experiment").

The purpose the experiment is to create a public "Digital Profile of a Foreign Citizen" information resource, a set of information submitted to public information systems by foreign citizens, authorized bodies and organizations participating in the experiment, in the volume and order stipulated by the Experiment Rules.

The experiment will be conducted in two stages.

1️⃣ 1 December 2024 to 30 June 2025

The first one, provides for collecting biometric personal data of foreign citizens (a photographic image of the person's face and finger papillary patterns) at air checkpoints on the state border of the Russian Federation – Moscow air zone at international airports (Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, Vnukovo), as well as Zhukovsky (Moscow region) and at the Mashtakovo automobile checkpoint (Orenburg region).

2️⃣ 30 June 2025 to 30 June 2026

The second stage will be held from 30 June 2025 to 30 June 2026. During this stage, in addition to fulfilling the above-mentioned requirements, foreign citizens planning to enter the Russian Federation visa-free, must register in the integrated identification and authentication system and submit an application to enter into and stay (reside) in the Russian Federation using the mobile application of the Integrated Portal of Public and Municipal Services (Functions) federal state information system.

The experiment will involve all foreign citizens and stateless persons crossing the state border of the Russian Federation at the resolution-specified checkpoints throughout its implementation period, with the exception of:

- citizens of the Republic of Belarus;

- children under 6 years of age;

- heads and staff of diplomatic missions and consular offices of foreign states in the Russian Federation, as well as their family members;

- officials of international organizations (missions of international organizations) and their family members;

- holders of diplomatic and service passports entering or leaving the Russian Federation due to performing official duties or as part of official delegations, as well as their family members.

Meanwhile, the procedure for processing and issuing Russian visas to foreign citizens, including single electronic visa, remains the same.

👉 The full text of the Resolution

🇷🇺🇳🇴 Ambassadens kommentar til Aftenposten i forbindelse med artikkelen om «Russlands hybridkrigføring» (3. desember 2024)

💬 Anklager om at Russland driver «hybridkrigføring» er absurde. Selv etter sabotasjen av gassrørledningene «Nord Stream», da russisk undervannsinfrastruktur ble sprengt, fortsetter noen å «måle andre med samme mål som seg selv».

Under påskudd av å bekjempe den «russiske trusselen» forsøker man å rettferdiggjøre uvennlige handlinger mot Russland, avbryter mellommenneskelige kontakter og undergraver OSSEs forpliktelser innenfor den menneskelige dimensjon.

Hvis Vesten ønsket det, ville det være lett for dem å bli overbevist om hvor latterlige anklagene er. Når det gjelder dataangrepene som er tilskrevet Russland, har vi for eksempel gjentatte ganger  foreslått til den norske siden å samarbeide med Det russiske nasjonale koordineringssenter for datahendelser. Dessverre ble disse forslagene ignorert.

❗️Det ser ut til at «hybridkrigføring» er blitt en integrert del av nemlig Vestens politikk overfor Moskva (ulovlige økonomiske sanksjoner, bruk av Russlands midler i utlandet, stenging av grenser, press på vårt land på den internasjonale arenaen, forsøk på å undergrave Russlands forhold til andre ikke-vestlige land, spredning av desinformasjon for å diskreditere den russiske staten, påvirkning for å skape indre ustabilitet i Russland, påvirkning av den offentlige opinionen, bruk av cyberrommet til å blande seg inn i Russlands indre anliggender, osv).

🇷🇺🇳🇴 Посольство России в Норвегии:

Комментарий Посольства газете «Афтенпостен» в связи с обвинениями России в ведении «гибридной войны» (опубликован 3 декабря 2024 года)

💬 Обвинения России в ведении «гибридной войны» абсурдны.

Даже после диверсий на «Северных потоках», когда была взорвана российская подводная инфраструктура, кое-кто продолжает «судить по себе».

Под предлогом борьбы с «российской угрозой» делаются попытки оправдать недружественные действия против нашей страны, прерываются контакты между людьми, подрываются принятые в ОБСЕ обязательства в области человеческого измерения.

При желании на Западе могли бы легко убедиться в нелепости предъявляемых обвинений. Так, в части приписываемых российской стороне кибератак мы неоднократно предлагали норвежским властям взаимодействовать с российским Национальным координационным центром по компьютерным инцидентам. К сожалению, эти предложения были проигнорированы.

❗️Судя по всему, «гибридные войны» стали неотъемлемой частью именно политики Запада в отношении Москвы: нелегитимные экономические санкции, распоряжение российскими капиталами за рубежом, закрытие границ, оказание давления на нашу страну на международной арене, попытки подрыва взаимоотношений России с другими – незападными странами, распространение дезинформации с целью дискредитации российского государства, создание в России внутренней нестабильности, влияние на общественное мнение, использование киберпространства для вмешательства во внутренние дела и др.

🎙 President of Russia Vladimir Putin's remarks at the Plenary Session of the Russia Calling! forum (December 4, 2024)

📄 Read
📹 Watch

Key points:

• Our entrepreneurs, companies and entire industries faced serious challenges in 2022 as a result of actions taken by, let me put it mildly, some countries or more precisely, their leading elites. These countries have shown themselves to be unreliable partners. Many industrial and logistics chains, as well as cooperative ties that took decades to develop, have been endangered or even disrupted.

• We often hear people from the political, military, or economic fields say that these countries set the task of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia, including in the economy and technology, to drastically weaken our country’s manufacturing industry, finance and services, to create an insurmountable shortage of goods on our market, to destabilise the labour market, and to lower the living standards of our citizens. It is obvious that these plans have failed to materialise. Following a challenging period, the Russian economy has not only fully recovered, but is also living through qualitative structural changes, which is vitally important and, perhaps, is the most important outcome of our work in the economy over the past two to three years.

• Russia’s technological, production and logistics potential is making strides. Ties with promising partners are getting stronger.

📈 Last year, Russia’s gross domestic product grew by 3.6 percent, which is a well-known fact, and increased by 4.1 percent in January-October of this year. The growth mainly comes from the manufacturing industries and sectors with high added value.

💼 Russia has a record-low unemployment rate of just 2.3 percent. Compared to the majority of the world’s leading and developing economies, this figure is minimal.

• Russia’s leadership in financial technologies positions us well to forge flexible partnerships with foreign counterparts, promote integration projects, and leverage the complementary strengths of our respective economies. I am also referring to the investment platform we are developing with our BRICS partners. This work is in its early stages but all the parties involved agree on its potential benefits and good prospects. It is expected to become an important instrument for supporting our economies and providing financial resources to the countries of the Global South and East.

• Despite the political pressure, many of our partners, including those from Western Europe and the United States, have not left the Russian market. Some of these companies continue to operate as before, probably about half of them; others have transferred management to the persons and entities they control. About one quarter of those companies have really left, while some continue to procedure to exit the Russian economy.

• Russia has not pivoted now to the Global South or East, no. Russia has engaged in this policy for a long time now, since the 2000s, mindful of the global development and global economic trends. We have been doing that for a long time now in an orderly and consistent manner.

🇷🇺🇨🇳 Our relations with China are not impacted by events that are taking place, for example, in Ukraine. China has long ago become our largest trade and economic partner, even before that.

🗓 On December 4, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov chaired a regular, 27th, meeting of the Russian Federation Interagency Commission for the Council of Europe (CE).

The Commission analysed the CE’s current anti-Russia activities, primarily its continued course for stepping up a legal aggression against the Russian Federation via the creation of illegitimate, pseudo-legalistic mechanisms for bringing Russia to “account” in connection with the special military operation. Additional measures have been outlined to neutralise unfriendly actions undertaken against Russia.

❌ The Commission reaffirmed the Russian Federation’s refusal to participate in the Council of Europe multilateral conventions that no longer meet its interests, up to denouncing the relevant agreements.

🇷🇺🇺🇳 Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the UN:

🎙 Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at a UNSC Briefing on Ukraine (December 4, 2024)

💬 Today, in this Chamber, we once again have to listen to hackneyed and many times debunked falsehoods about Ukrainian children allegedly abducted by Russia.

Obviously, the US and its satellites have decided to take this narrative out of mothballs in order to shift the focus away from the recent escalatory steps they have taken to exacerbate the Ukrainian conflict and expand its geography, which potentially may end up in a direct confrontation between nuclear powers. I am referring to the authorization to use long-range ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles to strike within our territory, which fundamentally changes the nature of the conflict.

❗️ Nonetheless, they will have to talk about this at the meeting that we requested for December 20.

The problems having to do with the child protection in Ukraine began shortly after the anti-constitutional Maidan coup of February 2014, when the nationalist and neo-Nazi regime came to power in Kiev with the help of the West and turned against the country's Russian-speaking population, including children. Not only were those children and their parents denied the right to speak and be educated in their native language, but also there were attempts to deprive them of their national, confessional and historical identity and to remold their brain.

Moreover, the new authorities do not scruple and will not scruple to use any means to attain their goals. If you need evidence, just visit the Alley of Angels in Donetsk; there is a monument there to the Donbass children who died at the hands of the nationalists. According to approximate estimates, over 24,000 people – Donbass children – have been affected by Ukrainian bombing and shelling since 2014.

<...>

By levelling accusations that Russia is allegedly abducting Ukrainian children, Kiev and its Western patrons are deliberately using a bait-and-switch tactic. The Russian authorities are evacuating children from areas of hostilities in full compliance with their obligations under international humanitarian law and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The absolute majority of children arrived in Russia together with their parents or other relatives, they were fleeing Ukraine’s shelling.

☝️ If for whatever reason a family is separated, then the Office of Children's Rights Commissioner has a clear algorithm how to reunite children with their relatives. This has been carried out since the beginning of the special military operation, consistently and openly. All incoming requests are promptly processed. People are assisted when they are submitting documents. Russia has been doing this work in cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross, Qatar and the Vatican.

<...>

All the information I’ve just told you is publicly available. However, these facts are being consistently ignored, since they are inconvenient for the collective West and its Ukrainian underlings. But we’ve got used to that, because the US and its satellites are not interested in the truth, the only thing they are interested in is accusations against Russia, and no one is going to prove the veracity of these accusations.

👉 The main and, essentially, the only threat to Ukrainian children comes from what is being done by the Kiev regime. The regime treats them as nothing but rising “cannon fodder” that the Ukrainian expired ringleader will use when he runs out of older Ukrainians to be forcibly sent to die for Western geopolitical interests in a senseless meat grinder.

Read in full

🇺🇳 On the adoption of UN General Assembly resolution on eradicating colonialism in all its forms and manifestations

🗓 On December 4, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution noscriptd Eradication of Colonialism in All Its Forms and Manifestations, which was drafted by the Group of Friends in Defence of the UN Charter with the guiding role of Russia. A total of 113 countries voted for it, 63 states abstained, and none of the UN member states voted against it. The document was previously approved by the Special Political and Decolonisation Committee (C-24) and the Fourth Committee of the UN General Assembly.

☝️ This convincing support shows that this initiative fully meets the fundamental interests of the Global Majority.

🌐 Its representatives are resolved to join forces in the struggle against the relics of the shameful colonial era and the modern manifestations of colonialism, which are seriously hindering the development of a more just multipolar world that will provide conditions for the comprehensive and sovereign development of states without any form of coercion.

The core of the abstaining group is made up of the former Western parent states, which bear the brunt of responsibility for centuries of colonial oppression of Asian, African and Latin American countries. This resolution was extremely unsuitable for them. However, they decided against opposing the Global South and East.

The main goal of that initiative is to ensure the full implementation of the 1960 Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. In this context, it provides for declaring December 14 as an annual International Day against Colonialism in All Its Forms and Manifestations (marking the day when the Declaration was adopted) and preparing thematic information awareness and educational programmes.

This resolution will help organise systemic efforts to eradicate all manifestations of colonialism. Moreover, it will serve as a solid foundation for advancing new anti-colonial initiatives within the UN framework and at other multilateral platforms.

🇷🇺 Russia is fully ready for this work together with the many countries that think likewise.

🎙 Briefing by Russia's Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (December 4, 2024)

🔹 FM Sergey Lavrov's schedule
🔹 Kiev regime crimes
🔹 Situation in Syria
🔹 Situation in South Korea
🔹 Situation in Georgia
🔹 Russian media’s petitions in connection with UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay’s draft report on the safety of journalists
🔹 Italy's duplicity regarding mercenarism
🔹 We Accuse photo exhibition

📰 Read
📺 Watch

***

#Ukraine

In the pursuit of an illusory victory over Russia, the administration of the outgoing US President, alongside European “hawks” – more akin to “lame ducks”– have gambled on intensifying conflict. They are endeavouring to arm the Kiev regime to the fullest possible extent before the new US President assumes office, thereby seeking to ensure the perpetuation of hostilities into 2025. <...>

The inadequate Ukrainian leader, Zelensky, makes statements every day on the impossibility of any talks with Russia, while NATO Secretary General Rutte says that weapons deliveries are vital for strengthening Kiev’s negotiating position. Do the NATO and other Western leaders ever look out of their windows? Do they know what their predecessors or allies mired in the NATO negativism said two days ago and what statements and decisions they made? They are out of synch.

#Syria

On November 27, militants from the international terrorist organisation Hayat Tahrir al-Sham operating in the Idlib de-escalation zone, alongside other armed groups, including the ones that are part of the Syrian National Army, launched a large-scale offensive in northwestern Syria.

We strongly condemn this attack led by terrorists recognised as such by the UN Security Council. Notably, there are many foreign combatants among them, including those from the former Soviet Union. Clearly, Ukraine was also involved, based on the information we are receiving about cooperation between the Kiev regime’s special services and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, including the transfer of UAVs and sharing the experience of using them. This is not the first or the last region where the Kiev terrorist regime is using its criminal experience. Before that, there were African countries, and now it’s Syria.

#UNESCO #Journalists #DoubleStandards

ВWe continue to receive overwhelming numbers of petitions from the Russian federal and regional media outlets in connection with the controversial 2022-2023 draft report by UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay on the safety of journalists and the issue of impunity, which ignores the facts of targeted killings of Russian journalists by the Kiev regime. <...>

This destructive and inordinately biased policy of the UNESCO leadership undermines the credibility of this UN special agency and causes serious harm to its authority, while Ms Azoulay herself is in fact an accessory to the information aggression against Russia, the war on the truth. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov covered these matters when he met with ambassadors from the World Majority countries accredited in Russia. We will not put up with this.

🎙 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview to Tucker Carlson (Moscow, December 6, 2024)

Read in full
Watch on Youtube

Key talking points

#RussiaUS

• We would like to have normal relations with all countries especially with the United States. We don't see any reason why Russia and the United States cannot cooperate for the sake of the universe.

• The Ukrainians would not be able to do what they're doing with long-range modern weapons without direct participation of the American servicemen. We don't want to aggravate the situation, but since ATACMS and other long-range weapons are being used against mainland Russia as it were, we are sending signals. <...>

[The US and its allies] must understand that we would be ready to use any means not to allow them to succeed in what they call strategic defeat of Russia. They fight for keeping the hegemony over the world on any country, any region, any continent. We fight for our legitimate security interests.

• We don't want to aggravate the situation, but since ATACMS and other long-range weapons are being used against mainland Russia, we are sending signals. We hope that the last one, a couple of weeks ago, the signal with the new weapon system called #Oreshnik was taken seriously.

• When the United States and other Western countries recognized unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo, they said this is the self-determination being implemented. There was no referendum in Kosovo — unilateral declaration of independence. <...> And when a few years later, Crimeans were holding referendum with invitation of many international observers, not from international organizations, but from parliamentarians in Europe, in Asia, in post-Soviet space, they said that they cannot accept this because this is violation of territorial integrity 🤷‍♂️

The UN Charter is not a menu. You have to respect it in all its entirety 👉 #UNCharterIsOurRules

• I think [Donald Trump] is a very strong person. A person who wants results. Who doesn't like procrastination on anything. But this does not mean that he's pro-Russian as some people try to present him. The amount of sanctions we received under the Trump administration was very big.

#Ukraine

• We strongly prefer peaceful solution through negotiations on the basis of respecting legitimate security interest of Russia, and on the basis of respecting the people who live in Ukraine, who still live in Ukraine being Russians. <...>

No military bases, no military exercises on the Ukrainian soil with participation of foreign troops. <...> We cannot tolerate a deal which would keep the legislation which are prohibiting Russian language, Russian media, Russian culture, Ukrainian Orthodox Church, because it is a violation of the obligations of Ukraine under the UN Charter.

• We are not talking about exterminating anybody's population. We don't have any intention to exterminate Ukrainian people. They are brothers and sisters to the Russian people.

• It is becoming clear that there is a fatigue in some capitals, and there are talks every now and then that the Americans would like to leave [Ukraine] with the Europeans and to concentrate on something more important.

#Syria

• The Americans in the east of Syria groom some Kurdish separatists using the profits from oil and grain sold, the resources which they occupy. <...> The information [on who's backing Islamist groups] which is being floated and it's in the public domain mentions among others the Americans, the Brits. Some people say that Israel is interested in making this situation aggravate. So that Gaza is not under very close scrutiny.