Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev’s interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta (March 27, 2023)

Security Council of the Russian FederationMarch 30, 2023

Question: Mr Patrushev, the United States will hold its second Summit for Democracy in a couple of days. In its wake, if we are to believe the Department of State, Washington will speed up the so-called democratic renovation of the world. What do you think about this "gathering of Washington's vassals" event?

Nikolai Patrushev: Organised by the White House, the Summit for Democracy is being held as part of the US presidential race that has got under way. It will be yet another meeting in favour of a world system where Washington wants to play the central role, while the dissidents, as should be expected, will be branded as “undemocratic states.”

The United States will once again declare itself the defender of international law and is sure to claim that the world must live according to its rules. Its geopolitical adversaries will be heaped with patently false accusations of military crimes and corruption, but, as usually, they will turn a blind eye to the real acts of genocide and financial machinations perpetrated with the White House’s approval. They will promise to feed the hungry and free unjustly imprisoned individuals. But they will keep silent about the fact that the US prison population amounts to about one-fifth of the entire world’s prison population, including people sentenced to several life terms. They will show especial zeal in defending sexual minority rights and imposing their green agenda on the world, thereby aggravating the energy crisis in their satellite countries.

While hypocritically speculating about the freedom of choice, the United States, the self-appointed global dictator, will in fact scoff at countries whose sovereignty and democracy it has trampled underfoot.

Question: They will probably say again that the US is a paragon of democracy for the entire human race, and will not wish to hear any criticism about themselves?

Nikolai Patrushev: This goes without saying. After all, the main task of the political regime in the present-day US is to mislead their own population amid the system-wide crisis they are facing.

Their democracy is nothing more than a pretty façade of a state structure designed to cover up how they ignore the rights of the common American. Those who have taken a closer look at the US legal and socio-political system have no illusions about whether there is freedom of speech or freedom of expression. How can there be freedom of opinion, if even the former president of the United States is prevented from speaking on the social media or in the press about issues that interest the public, and while the media are propaganda outlets for major companies and elite groups?

While defending competition by word only, the American authorities have made the country’s economy dependent on corrupt and lobbying ties traced to the White House and the Capitol. The political process has degenerated into a clash between corporations, which put their people in key positions in the bodies of power. They also shape the US foreign policy and seek to maintain US global domination by creating hotbeds of tension all over the world for the sake of their billion-dollar profits from various contracts, the imaginary transparency of which they themselves control.

Though proclaiming democratic slogans in season and out of season, Washington has long become a champion in violating the sovereignty of states, in the number of war and conflicts unleashed, and in the brutal and illegal hunting of citizens of other countries.

If the US really decides to advance towards democracy and stops humiliating its allies/vassals, we will only welcome that.

Question: Will we hear at the summit pompous statements about how Kiev, with the support of the good people from NATO, is standing up to the universal evil embodied by Russia?

Nikolai Patrushev: I am sure this issue will top the discussion. In fact, NATO countries are a party to the conflict.

They made one large military camp out of Ukraine. They are shipping weapons and ammunition to Ukrainian troops, provide them with intelligence, including with the help of satellite imagery specialists and a fair number of UAVs. NATO instructors and advisers are training the Ukrainian military, and mercenaries are fighting as part of neo-Nazi battalions. In an attempt to draw out the military confrontation as much as possible, they are not hiding their key goal, which is to defeat Russia on the battlefield and then dismember it.

Question: This policy of Washington never changes, because the American elite were never able to come to grips with a strong and independent Russia, correct?

Nikolai Patrushev: Yes. The US authorities’ unchecked push to maintain their leading role around the world has been the source of escalation of tensions on a global scale since at least 1945. They believe two great powers, Russia and China, are standing in their way and prevent them from achieving this goal. The Russian Federation is a problem because in addition to pursuing an independent policy for strengthening the multipolar world, it defeats America spiritually, morally, and militarily. China is the United States’ main economic rival. Their attempts to suppress Russia will be followed by Washington’s taking on the PRC.

As you may be aware, concrete steps to destroy the Soviet Union were approved 75 years ago in a well-known NSC directive “US Objectives with Respect to Russia.” The West went euphoric with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The euphoria did not last long, though, because Russia corrected its mistakes. Today, our country can ensure not only domestic stability, but national security against external threats as well.

Question: Earlier this March, a US strategic bomber practiced a simulated nuclear strike on St Petersburg from a distance of 200 kilometres above the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea in a deliberate attempt to exacerbate tensions. They don’t fear anything any more?

Nikolai Patrushev: For some reason, the US politicians, who are held captive by their own propaganda, remain confident that in the event of a direct conflict with Russia, the United States is capable of delivering a preventive missile strike that will render Russia unable to retaliate. This is a case of shortsighted and very dangerous foolhardiness.

Some people in the West have forgotten the lessons of history and are talking about turning the tables and prevailing militarily over Russia. We can say only one thing in response to this: Russia is a patient country and does not intimidate anyone with its military advantage. However, it has unique modern weapons that can destroy any enemy, including the United States, in case it is faced with an existential threat.

Question: However, the West is betting not only on a military defeat, but on the economic attrition of Russia as well...

Nikolai Patrushev: This is clearly so. Many Western companies left the Russian market under pressure from Washington. However, they were seriously mistaken in their projections concerning the collapse of our economy and the growth of protest sentiment.

In the last decade, the West has been implementing the idea of creating a technological order where it was the only beneficiary of economic prosperity, while the rest of the world was destined to remain on the fringes of socioeconomic progress. Therefore, its leaders are irate at Russia’s measured response to sanctions pressure. Russia is a pet peeve for the rulers in the United States and Europe as a country that is independent in terms of its economy, raw materials, and scientific research. For their part, Western countries are completely dependent on transnational companies and global supply chains. If sanctions of the same level were to be imposed on the United Kingdom or France, they would have quickly plunged into chaos.

However, Russia is not going to keep the rest of the world cut off from its economy.

It will remain open and integrated with the economies of those sovereign countries that are concerned about their own prosperity, which is based, among other things, on cooperation with us.

Question: Clearly, undermining the Russian economy and bleeding the Russian army dry are two sides of one strategy that the West has been trying to implement for centuries now?

Nikolai Patrushev: No doubt about it. One should not naively believe that economic aggression is softer and more humane. European countries and Japan have stopped supplying a number of medicines, including vital ones, to Russia. In this regard, the Western pharmaceutical industry deserves an honourable mention as a successor to the “traditions” established by its predecessors. It’s a known fact that most of these companies have at some point worked on developing toxic gases and gas chambers commissioned by Nazi Germany, thus fully supporting the ideology substantiating the genocide of the “superfluous” nations.

Think back to how the Anglo-Saxons nurtured Nazis in the 1930s in hope of using them against the Soviet Union. Having reaped financial and geopolitical benefits from the outcomes of World War II, Washington and London are again conniving with Nazism and fascism. They have no qualms about using Ukraine to set Europe or the entire world ablaze in a belief that they can get away with anything.

Question: One gets an impression that the collective West is not even thinking about learning from the past.

Nikolai Patrushev: The Western Internationale has challenged our country more than once under the banners of the Poles or the Swedes, Napoleonic eagles, the British flag or Nazi swastika. The result has always been the same and the attempts to crush Russia were futile. The Westerners are unwilling to learn their lessons and keep looking for trouble.

Washington is not happy with stability in Asia that came as a result of WWII and the liberation movement, either. The US Indo-Pacific strategy is an attempt to create an Asian NATO. The new alliance will be another aggressive bloc directed against China and Russia and will be used to subject independent states.

Rearming the Australian Navy under the new AUKUS alliance, including the supply of nuclear submarines, and military support for Taiwan and South Korea have a long-term goal of establishing US and NATO dominance over Eurasia on its eastern flank.

Washington nudged Tokyo to begin another militarisation. The Japan Self-Defence Forces are about to become a full-fledged army capable of conducting offensive operations. This has been confirmed by Japanese legislation, which in fact is a gross violation of one of the most important outcomes of World War II. Focusing on attack weapons, Prime Minister Kishida said his country was about to purchase 400 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the United States.

In addition to arming Japan, Washington is trying to revive the spirit of Japanese militarism, which seemed to have been uprooted in 1945. It appears that someone plans to turn residents of that island state into kamikazes dying for other people’s interests. The Westerners choose not to recall or deliberately keep silent about using Japan’s aggressiveness against the Soviet Union and China at the beginning of the 20th century, but, in the end, the Japanese turned their weapons against the Americans, the British and their allies.

Question: The American and European politicians tend to not only conveniently forget about awkward facts from their past, but also deliberately rewrite history, even when it runs counter to common sense. This can be seen from the hypocritical campaign to rehabilitate Nazism. They have even gone as far as claiming that Ukrainians were the only soldiers to liberate Europe from Nazism. They are touting the myth about the Holodomor as an act of genocide.

Nikolai Patrushev: People who know history and are not attempting to falsify it are well aware of the fact that access to food was a bigger problem in the RSFSR than in Ukraine in the 1920s and 1930s.

This is a well-documented state of affairs, and facts abound to back it up. The biography of the Hero of the Soviet Union Grigory Boyarinov is a case in point. His 100th birth anniversary was marked at the end of last year. He was a renowned intelligence officer and a participant in the Great Patriotic War and many special operations. He died while leading the assault on Amin's palace in Afghanistan. He was born in 1922 in the Smolensk Region. His father was chairman of a collective farm. However, in the 1930s, his family relocated to Ukraine, where food was more readily available and survival was more likely.

The Americans are using famine slogans on a global scale and accuse our country of provoking a global food crisis. I have no doubt that during the summit for democracy they will focus on this issue as well. Meanwhile, the Westerners are blocking exports of Russian grain and fertiliser abroad, robbing Ukrainians of their grain, which they resell at exorbitant prices to poor countries on predatory terms, as their colonial ancestors did.

Question: Sometimes it looks like the West is digging itself into a hole. The events underway in the EU evoke strong feelings about its uncertain future.

Nikolai Patrushev: The collapse of the EU is not far off. Of course, the Europeans will not continue to put up with this supranational superstructure, which not only failed to justify its existence, but is also pushing the Old World into an open conflict with our country. The United States is prepared to fight Russia not only to the last Ukrainian, but to the last European as well. Even during the Cold War, at the slightest sign of a threat from the Soviet Union, the Pentagon was ready to turn Europe into a radioactive wasteland. I don’t think the US strategists have changed their minds in this regard.

Question: How does this rhyme with the fact that the United States and Europe are the main allies in words?

Nikolai Patrushev: The irony is that Washington has a stake in seeing the EU disintegrate in order to eliminate an economic competitor and to prevent Europe from prospering through cooperation with Russia. The Americans have done a lot to make sure the Old World loses its status of a strong economic player. In many respects, Washington has been fomenting the anti-Russia sanctions exactly for this purpose. We are witnessing a sea change in the EU’s economic model based on a mix of cheap energy from Russia and advanced European technology.

The implementation of joint plans with Washington to reduce raw material and technological dependence on Beijing will deal an equally devastating blow to Europe. In addition, the EU is facing a migration dead end. Many migrants are not only unwilling to become integrated into the European family, but create their own caliphates and force the local governments and residents into living according to their laws. Criminals and gunmen are coming to Europe with other migrants. Most recent high-profile terrorist attacks in London, Brussels and Paris were committed by EU citizens hailing from ethnic enclaves. Keeping in mind that Al-Qaeda, ISIS (these international terrorist organisations are outlawed in the Russian Federation) and other terrorist organisations were created by the United States, and terrorists in Syria and Iraq are trained by the CIA instructors, it cannot be ruled out that the terrorist attacks in Europe were made possible by the same individuals who seek to destabilise the situation in Europe, whose future the United States doesn’t care about.

The United States is ruling the roost in Europe, ignoring the fact that the leading role on this continent has historically been assigned to Russia. In the 19th century it was the Russian Empire, and in the 20th century the Soviet Union. So it will be in the 21st century as well.

Question: Is the United States confident of its own robustness? Does it think decline can be a threat to anyone but them? I think the United States may be facing the risk of disintegration as well.

Nikolai Patrushev: The United States acquired the status of a great power as a result of economic achievements based on cynical seizure of territories, resources, exploiting peoples and profiting from other countries’ war tragedies. Still, they remained a patchwork quilt that can easily burst at the seams and cleave into North and South the way things were early on. Moreover, we cannot rule out that the South will not start moving towards Mexico, whose lands the Americans seized in 1848. We are talking about over 2 million square kilometres. By the way, Latin American leaders are not hiding the fact that their awareness of the United States’ destructive role has become widespread. The fact of creating the Guantanamo base is considered an outright theft of Cuban sovereignty. This is just one of the many examples of systematic encroachment on independence of the Latin American countries. There’s no doubt that sooner or later US neighbours south of the border will take back the territories that were stolen from them.

Question: The United States is torn by multiple internal contradictions. There is no unity even within the American elite.

Nikolai Patrushev: That’s right. The antagonism between Republicans and Democrats is exacerbating. Differences between various financial entities and transnational corporations that care about nothing, not even America’s prosperity, but their own capitalisation are mounting. The US elites who think of themselves as untouchables never thought of themselves as part of the American people.

Their projects like BLM, or Black Lives Matter, and the sweeping inculcation of transgender theories are aimed at spiritual degradation of the public, which is already in a state of apathy. The Americans’ individualism and consumerism will play a cruel trick on the country. Ordinary citizens will not lift a finger to keep America whole as they are fully aware that the government does not need them. The US authorities don’t know what they are doing and are slowly destroying themselves.

America's problem is that it has got carried away with playing geopolitical games and left its own pressing problems unattended. While the United States is busy developing new viruses in its military biological laboratories to destroy the peoples of objectionable countries, the once clean American cities are drowning in filth and garbage.

Built with the help of the printing press, the US financial pyramid keeps faltering. The model that is based on unchecked emissions, where economic issues are literally flooded with money, cannot remain viable forever. With over $31.5 trillion in foreign debt, the US is on track to default. The eroding confidence in the dollar that is not backed by actual goods and in inflated stock market speculations will plunge the United States into a devastating financial crisis.

Question: No matter how ostentatious it may sound, Russians not only don’t want war, but they don’t want to see the demise of the United States or any other country.

Nikolai Patrushev: Absolutely. Our centuries-old culture is based on spirituality, compassion and mercy. Russia is a historical champion of sovereignty and statehood of all nations who turned to it for help. Russia saved the United States at least twice, once during the Revolutionary War and then again during the Civil War. I believe helping the United States to maintain its integrity this time would be pointless.

⚡️The Concept of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation

📑 This Concept is a strategic planning document which provides a systemic vision of the national interests of Russia in the domain of foreign policy, basic principles, strategic goals, major objectives & priority areas of the Russian foreign policy.

☝️ More than a 1000 years of independent statehood, the cultural heritage of the preceding era, deep historical ties with the traditional European culture & other Eurasian cultures, & the ability to ensure harmonious coexistence of different peoples, ethnic, religious & linguistic groups on one common territory, which has been developed over many centuries, determine Russia's special position as a unique country-civilization & a vast Eurasian and Euro-Pacific power that brings together the Russian people & other peoples belonging to the cultural & civilizational community of the Russian world.

Russia, taking into account its decisive contribution to the victory in World War II & its active role in shaping the contemporary system of international relations & eliminating the global system of colonialism, is one of the sovereign centres of global development performing a historically unique mission aimed at maintaining global balance of power & building a multipolar international system, as well as ensuring conditions for the peaceful progressive development of humanity on the basis of a unifying and constructive agenda.

🇷🇺 Russia pursues an independent & multi-vector foreign policy driven by its national interests & the awareness of its special responsibility for maintaining peace & security at the global & regional levels.

Russian foreign policy is peaceful, open, predictable, consistent, & pragmatic & is based on the respect for universally recognized principles & norms of international law.

❗️ Russia's attitude towards other states & interstate associations is contingent on the constructive, neutral or unfriendly character of their policies with respect to Russia.

Read in full

⚡️ Foreign Ministry Statement on Finland 🇫🇮 completing the process to join NATO

💬 On April 4, 2023, it was officially declared that all the legal procedures related to Finland becoming a NATO member were completed.

As we have warned on multiple occasions, the Russian Federation will have to respond with military-technical, as well as other measures in order to address national security threats arising from Finland joining NATO.

Specific decisions regarding the build-up of defence capabilities along Russia’s northwestern borders will depend on the specific terms on which Finland joins NATO, including the deployment of NATO’s military infrastructure and offensive weapons on its territory.

☝️ The line of contact between NATO and the Russian Federation’s border has more than doubled. This constitutes a major shift for Northern Europe, which used to be one of the most stable regions in the world. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has made another step to move closer to the territory of Russia.

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By joining NATO, Finland has given up on its unique identity and lost its independence, which for decades gave it a special status in international affairs. Helsinki’s policy of military non-alignment has long served its national interests and was a major confidence-building factor in the Baltic region and across the European continent. But now all this has become a thing of the past.

Finland became a minor NATO member without the possibility to influence any decisions. It has lost its ability to have a say in international affairs.

History will tell whether Finland needed to take this ill-conceived step, undertaken by the country’s government without taking into consideration what the people think about it by holding a referendum and carefully examining the consequences of NATO membership. We strongly believe that this is the case.

❗️ Finland’s accession to NATO will have a negative effect on the bilateral relations between Russia and Finland.

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🎙 Interview by Russia's Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia to TASS News Agency (31 March 2023)

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🔷 We expect Minister Lavrov to arrive in New York in the second half of April. He will chair an open debate on April 24 on the topic of effective multilateralism in defense of the principles of the UN Charter.

🔷 We call on UN members to look beyond the horizon of the current moment and present their vision of how we could build a truly multipolar world through joint efforts, in which the interests of all states would be guaranteed.

🔷 Taking into account the facts we provide, the world organization from the very beginning heard and knew our demands to unblock the activities of Russian companies exporting relevant goods.

🔷 The “Arria formula” meeting is designed to bring to the international community first-hand information about evacuated children from the war zone in Donbass and Ukraine and dispel the false narrative spread by the Western media about the alleged “abductions” of children from Ukraine and attempts to "destroy their identity."

❗️ The Russian side does not prevent children from maintaining contact and communication with their relatives and friends, regardless of their place of residence.

🔷 The tactics of our Western colleagues do not surprise us - after all, as we once again became convinced from the recent investigation of the authoritative American journalist Seymour Hersh, all the evidence points to who is behind the explosions on the Nord Stream.

О реакции в Норвегии на решения МУС по Украине

Считаем категорически неприемлемыми комментарии членов норвежского правительства, в т.ч. премьер-министра о готовности «выполнить обязательства перед Междунпродным уголовным судом в Гааге» в отношении «ордеров на арест» Президента России В.В.Путина и Уполномоченной при Президенте по правам ребенка М.А.Львовой-Беловой.

Рассматриваем подобную риторику, а тем более любые действия, касающиеся приведения в исполнение этих решений МУС, как очередной недружественный жест Осло. В России чётко отфиксировали такую позицию Норвегии.

🇷🇺Россия не участвует в Римском статуте 1998 г. и наряду с Индией, Китаем, США и многими другими странами не признаёт его юрисдикцию. Решения МУС, в т.ч. ордера, не имеют силы в российской правовой системе и являются для нас юридически ничтожными.

МУС не оправдал возложенных на него ожиданий и не стал подлинно независимым и беспристрастным органом международного правосудия.

МУС также не имеет никакого отношения к системе ООН. Согласно международному праву, должностные лица государства пользуются иммунитетом, а должностные лица высокого ранга – абсолютным иммунитетом.

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Om reaksjoner i Norge på ICC´s avgjørelser om Ukraina

Vi anser som helt uakseptable, kommentarene fra medlemmer i den norske regjeringen, inkludert statsministeren om at man er parat til «overholde forpliktelser overfor Den internasjonale straffedomstolen i Haag» som gjelder «arrestordre» på Russlands President Vladimir Putin og Kommisjonær for barnerettigheter under Russlands President Maria Lvova-Belova.

Vi betrakter en slik retorikk og spesielt all slags handlinger som gjelder håndhevelse av disse avgjørelser fra ICC, som en ny uvennlig gest fra Oslo. Dette norske standpunktet er nøyaktig registrert i Russland.

Russland deltar ikke i Roma-vedtektene av 1998 og på linje med India, Kina, USA samt mange andre land anerkjenner ikke deres jurisdiksjon. Bestemmelser fra ICC, inkludert ordre, har ingen makt i det russiske rettssystemet og er for oss juridisk ugyldige.

ICC har aldri innfridd forventningene som man stilte til den og har aldri blitt et sannelig uavhengig og upartisk organ i den internasjonale rettsvesen.

ICC har også ingenting å gjøre med FN-systemet. Ifølge folkeretten nyter statstjenestepersoner immunitet, mens høyrangs tjenestepersoner nyter absolutt immunitet.

Russian Foreign Ministry - МИД России

https://www.nettavisen.no/vladimir-putin/icc/jonas-gahr-store/russland-ut-mot-stores-retorikk-uakseptabelt-og-uvennlig/s/5-95-1020485?fbclid=IwAR3LLrw_qpKRvvJGevn7j0z3FQbprDRSjLhvdsvL0KGvfB5AJHBfNCB_U8E&mibextid=Zxz2cZ