⚡️ 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.

<...>

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.

Read in full

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

Read in full

🔷 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.

***

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

🔴 #LIVE: Briefing by Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria #Zakharova on topical foreign policy issues

🔗 https://www.ruptly.tv/en/events/202304051200-live13925-russian-mfa-spokesperson-zakharova-holds-weekly-briefing

🔗 https://mid.ru/en/press_service/video

⚡️ Regarding the pressure put by the Kiev regime on the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra leaders amid the Great Lent

READ IN FULL

❗️ In the last days of March and early April, the campaign to seize the pearl of Orthodoxy – the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra – waged by the current Kiev regime and the so-called Orthodox Church of Ukraine, a schismatic and non-canonical church controlled by current regime authorities, reached a decisive stage.

This move was long in the making.

On April 1 of this year, the abbot of the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Metropolitan Paul, was put under house arrest, while neo-Nazi activists began to arrive at the monastery, mocking the divine services and attempts by the brethren and other people praying at the monastery to preserve the Lavra in the bosom of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

⚠️ It speaks volumes that Zelensky and his regime would choose this exact moment to put pressure on the Lavra – the time of the Great Lent.

The Kiev-Pechersk Lavra is no ordinary monastery. It is the centre of canonical Orthodoxy, as well as one of the oldest Lavras of the ancient Russian state.

The Kiev regime has turned its religious policy into a tool for promoting its neo-Nazi practices.

It is an open secret that the Zelensky regime is in no way independent when it comes to its anti-ecclesiastic policies. Creating a schism within Orthodoxy and delivering a blow against this sphere of life has long been Washington’s stated goal.

◾️ Even for the current Kiev authorities seizing the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra is illegitimate in terms of law and immoral from a spiritual perspective. It demonstrates better than many other steps the regime has taken or its rhetoric its criminal nature and readiness to turn a blind eye to the feelings and, even more importantly, the rights of people, including Ukrainian citizens.

📆 On April 6, 1654, the Grand Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Duke Alexei Mikhailovich granted his royal charter to Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host Bogdan Khmelnitsky. The document secured Russia’s reunification with Little Rus and became an important milestone in our shared history.

In the late 16th and the first half of the 17th century, the Little Russian nobility, Cossacks and peasants living in the southern part of Ancient Rus suffered increasing pressure from the gentry of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Clashes became more frequent, escalating into a wider struggle for their ancestral lands, for the preservation of Orthodox Christianity, the local language and way of life.

Those who remained faithful to Orthodoxy became outcasts and lost their hierarchical leadership when the Mikhail Rogoza, Metropolitan of Kiev, supported the Union and joined the Greek Catholics.

During those years, huge numbers of Orthodox Cossacks began moving to cities on Russia’s border and openly opposing the oppression by the Polish nobility, Catholics and the Uniate Church.

The Cossacks, led by Hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky, stepped up their liberation struggle in 1648. The Hetman repeatedly asked Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich for help, and asked the tsar to take the Hetmanate under “his royal hand.” The idea was not new. Even before Khmelnitsky, at least two Zaporozhian hetmans had asked the Russian tsar to accept the Cossacks’ allegiance – Hetman Krzysztof Kosiński in 1592 and Hetman Petro Sahaidachny in 1620.

On January 8, 1654, the Pereyaslavl Rada (Council) officially announced the acceptance of the Zaporozhian Cossacks into the Russian state. On April 6, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich signed the royal charter where the Russian monarch’s noscript “Tsar of all Russia Great and Little” was used for the first time. The event had enormous importance for the peoples of Rus, contributing to the socioeconomic and cultural development of these territories and the Russian state as a whole.

🎙 Comment by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on the meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs on April 4-5, 2023

💬 On April 4-5 in Brussels, NATO held a meeting of the North Atlantic Council at the level of foreign ministers.

Focused on preparations for the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius this summer, the event also marked the 74th anniversary of the alliance, a rudimentary structure of the Cold War era which, as envisaged by its founders, was supposed to ensure the supremacy of the collective West over the rest of the world.

☝️ Essentially, the alliance has nothing to be proud of. What the allies have under their belts is wars, turning countries into ruins, war crimes that have remained unpunished, murders of civilians and destruction of civilian infrastructure. Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya. Who’s next?

At the same time, representatives of the North Atlantic bloc incessantly repeat that the purpose of the union is defence. However, the entire history of the organisation attests to the contrary. Now again, we can see that NATO, seeking to usurp the entire system of European security, continues to expand towards Russia and create threats to our security.

Finland has become yet another victim of the North Atlantic alliance. The Finnish officials decided to part with the country’s decades-long neutrality in exchange for becoming a near-front zone and a springboard for deterring Russia in the northwest.

As we can see, NATO does not intend to stop at that. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg increasingly issues statements about the alliance’s global role and the need to expand beyond its traditional area of responsibility, or the Euro-Atlantic. The reality is that NATO is building a foundation for pervasively imposing NATO-centric approaches to regional security.

Hence the pumping of more weapons into Ukraine and motivating it to continue the war with Russia; hence the attacks on China, the flirting with Japan and South Korea and plans to militarise the Arctic.

❗️ All these efforts are meant to make the world more dangerous and prevent the existence of any alternative centres of power that may be able to undermine the hegemony of the West. Overall, we can confidently state that security and NATO are two incompatible things.

It is hard to escape the conclusion: at 74, the North Atlantic bloc should retire.

🏅 The XVII International Tchaikovsky Competition, one of the most prestigious contests of classical music in the world and the oldest in Russia, is to take place on June 19 – July 1, 2023. The event is organized with the support of the Government of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.

☝️ The main purpose of the Competition is to reveal new talent. First held more than 50 years ago, the contest has spawned a great number of prominent pianists, violinists, cellists, singers etc. Van Cliburn, Denis Matsuev, Gidon Kremer, Mario Brunello and many other renowned musicians gained worldwide recognition with the help of Tchaikovsky Competition.

🎶 The XVII International Tchaikovsky Competition invites musicians from 16 to 32 years old to participate, show their talent and gain worldwide recognition. Traditionally the event includes 6 nominations with their own jury chairman: "piano", "violin", "cello", "solo singing", "woodwind instruments" and "brass instruments".

👉 Applications are accepted until April 16. The participation is free.

📄 Excerpts from the Concept of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation

Regional tracks of the foreign policy of Russia: Near Abroad

❗️ The most important for the security, stability, territorial integrity & social and economic development of Russia, strengthening its position as one of the influential sovereign centres of world development & civilization is to ensure sustainable long-term good-neighbourly relations & to combine the strengths in various fields with the CIS member states, which are connected with Russia by centuries-old traditions of joint statehood, deep interdependence in various fields, a common language & close cultures.

🇷🇺 Russia intends to give priority to:

1) preventing & resolving armed conflicts, improving inter-state relations, & ensuring stability in the near abroad;

2) ensuring guaranteed protection of Russia, its allies & partners under any military & political scenario in the world, strengthening the system of regional security;

3) countering deployment or reinforcement of military infrastructure of unfriendly states & other threats to Russia's security in the near abroad;

4) deepening integration processes, which serve Russia's interests, & strategic cooperation with the Republic of Belarus, strengthening the mutually beneficial comprehensive cooperation system based on combined CIS & EAEU potentials, as well as developing additional multilateral formats;

5) establishing an integrated economic & political space in Eurasia in the long term;

6) preventing & countering unfriendly actions of foreign states & their alliances, which provoke disintegration processes in the near abroad;

7) unleashing the economic potential of good-neighbourliness, primarily with the EAEU Member States & states interested in developing economic relations with Russia in order to form a broader integration contour in Eurasia;

8) comprehensively supporting the Republic of Abkhazia & the Republic of South Ossetia;

9) strengthening cooperation in the Caspian Sea zone.

👉 Read in full

📄 Excerpts from the Concept of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation

Today's world: major trends & prospects for development

☝️ The formation of a more equitable multipolar world order is underway. The imbalanced model of world development which has for centuries ensured the advanced economic growth of colonial powers through the appropriation of resources of dependent territories and states in Asia, Africa & in the Occident is irrevocably fading into the past.

🔹 A wide-spread form of interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states has become the imposition of destructive neoliberal ideological attitudes that run counter to traditional spiritual & moral values. As a result, the destructive effect extends to all spheres of international relations.

🇺🇳 Serious pressure is being put on the UN and other multilateral institutions the intended purpose of which, as platforms for harmonizing the interests of the leading powers, is artificially devalued. The international legal system is put to the test: a small group of states is trying to replace it with the concept of a rules-based world order.

🔹 The role of the power factor in international relations is increasing, conflict areas are expanding in a number of strategically important regions. <...> A logical response to the crisis of the world order is the strengthening of cooperation between the states that are subject to external pressure.

🔹 Considering the strengthening of Russia as one of the leading centres of development in the modern world & its independent foreign policy as a threat to Western hegemony, the US and their satellites used the measures taken by Russia as regards Ukraine to protect its vital interests as a pretext to aggravate the longstanding anti-Russian policy and unleashed a new type of hybrid war. It is aimed at weakening Russia in every possible way.

❗️ In response to unfriendly actions of the West, Russia intends to defend its right to existence & freedom of development using all means available.

👉 Read in full

📄 Excerpts from the Concept of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation

Regional tracks of the foreign policy of Russia: The Arctic and Antarctica

#Arctic

🇷🇺 Russia is seeking to preserve peace and stability, enhance environmental sustainability, reduce threats to national security in the Arctic, create favourable international conditions for the social and economic development of the Arctic zone of Russia, as well as to advance the #NorthernSeaRoute as a competitive national transport corridor making possible its international use for transportations between Europe and Asia. #Arctic4You

In pursuing these aims, Russia is going to focus on:

1) peacefully resolving international issues, related to the Arctic, proceeding from the premise of the special responsibility of the Arctic states for the sustainable development of the region and the sufficiency of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea dated 10 December 1982 for regulating interstate relations in the Arctic Ocean;

2) counteracting the unfriendly states' policy aimed at militarization of the region and limiting Russia's ability to exercise its sovereign rights in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation;

3) ensuring the unalterability of the historically established international legal regime of the inland maritime waters of the Russian Federation;

4) establishing a mutually beneficial cooperation with the non Arctic states pursuing a constructive policy toward Russia and interested in international activities in the Arctic, including developing infrastructure of the Northern Sea Route.

#Antarctica

🇷🇺 Russia is interested in preserving Antarctica as a demilitarized space of peace, stability and cooperation, maintaining environmental sustainability and expanding its presence in the region.

For these purposes, Russia intends to give priority attention to preservation, effective implementation and progressive development of the Antarctic Treaty System of December 1, 1959.

👉 Read in full

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s greetings to the organisers of and participants in the Time to Go to Space International Festival

💬 The achievements of space exploration are playing a more noticeable role in the economy, and they help raise the well-being of the world’s peoples.

Cosmonautics synthesise all the best achievements of global science and technology. The development of space rocket systems, artificial satellites, manned spacecraft and orbital stations, as well as their creation, have made a tangible contribution to the accelerated development of many modern economic sectors.

Numerous successes in the exploration of near-Earth space became possible thanks to international cooperation aiming to facilitate fruitful exchanges of experience and to reduce outlays. Russia’s interaction with foreign partners to create and operate the International Space Station is an outstanding example.

In the current geopolitical conditions, it is important to maintain contacts between leading world experts on issues that unite people, including space exploration. In turn, the Foreign Ministry will continue to help preserve essential channels for depoliticised dialogue.

☝️ Russia is ready to expand multilateral cooperation in outer space for the benefit of humankind in line with international law.

Read in full

🚀 April 12, 1961, marked the dawn of a new space era - a major milestone in the history of humanity which cannot be understated.

Of course, it is also a golden page in the biography of a legend, a remarkable man who had a direct bearing on the march of world history and later came to symbolise space exploration.

Every year at 9:07 am Moscow time on #CosmonauticsDay, we start counting minutes until Gagarin’s return home - all 108 minutes (that's how long the flight took).

🌏 Launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, his spacecraft, Vostok 1, completed a full orbit around the Earth, landing in the Saratov Region. Two days later, the capital and the entire country welcomed the space hero back. The world applauded the space pioneer!

🚀 The Space Age began on April 12, 1961. Sixty-two years ago, mankind managed to overcome terrestrial gravitation and orbited the planet. We are particularly proud to recall that Soviet citizen and the first Soviet pilot-cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin accomplished this great breakthrough.

🧑‍🚀 Although Gagarin was only 27 on the eve of his space mission, he had come a long way from flying with the Saratov air club to joining the first Soviet cosmonaut squad. On that memorable morning in April 1961, he blasted off into the great unknown. A photographer snapped an image of Gagarin shortly before liftoff; the cosmonaut’s face had no sign of fear and showed the famous smile of Gagarin.

Yuri Gagarin spent 108 minutes in outer space and completed a full orbit around the Earth. Almost no one knew that history was being made on that morning. TASS news agency did not break the news until 10:13 am.

On April 14, Gagarin was riding in a convertible through the streets of the Soviet Union. Jubilant crowds cheerfully greeted him and showered his limousine with flowers. Every Soviet citizen felt that he or she was somehow a part of this historical event.

Gagarin was a representative of a county that had risen from the ashes of World War II not long before, and that had already plunged into a tense Space Race rivalry with the United States. Nevertheless, his feat belonged to all of mankind, not just the Soviet people. It served as a prologue to the glorious era of international cooperation in exploring outer space.

🌏 In the next two years, Gagarin visited more than 30 countries where he was given a hero’s welcome. The Soviet cosmonaut’s foreign tour was unofficially called a peace mission – people everywhere sincerely greeted the first man in space, regardless of their political views.

👉 Every year, on #CosmonauticsDay, a countdown begins at 9.07 am Moscow Time until Yuri Gagarin’s safe return home.

#Gagarin #Gagarin1961 #FirstInSpace

Комментарий норвежским СМИ в связи с высылкой сотрудников Посольства

Подтверждаем информацию, опубликованную в пресс-релизе МИД Норвегии, об объявлении 15 сотрудников Посольства «персона нон грата».

Реакция очень негативная. Это - очередной крайне недружественный шаг, на который последуют ответные меры.

***

Kommentar til norske medier angående utvisning av ambassadeansatte

Vi bekrefter informasjonen publisert i UDs pressemelding om at 15 ambassadeansatte er erklært «persona non grata».
Reaksjonen er sterkt negativ. Dette er et nytt ekstremt uvenlig skritt, som følges opp med svartiltak.