💬Andrei Kelin to Andrew Marr on LBC News:

We, of course, detest any terrorist activity and what has happened on the October 7, but we do not support what's going in Gaza right now. <…>

We appeal that violence should stop in Gaza and negotiations should take place in order to arrange two-state solution.

You cannot contain Palestinians, you need to give them a state solution. This is what neither Israel nor the US do not want to implement.

Find out more

#Gaza #Israel #US

⚡️ Comment by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on tensions between Iran and Pakistan

💬 We are closely monitoring the growing tensions on the Iranian-Pakistani border areas with great concern. We urge both parties to exercise ultimate restraint and resolve the situation through political and diplomatic means. Once again, we emphasise the importance of conducting any counter-terrorist operations outside of sovereign territory only after reaching an agreement and coordinating with the authorities of the states involved.

It is discouraging that these events are occurring between friendly states, members of the SCO, with whom we are developing partnership relations. The further escalation will only benefit those who are not interested in peace, stability and security in the region.

☝️ We hope that Iran and Pakistan will soon find a way to settle the conflict in the spirit of traditional neighbourliness, including by addressing the elimination of terrorist threats originating from their respective territories. We underscore Russia’s unwavering readiness to cooperate in the fight against international terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

💬Andrei Kelin to Andrew Marr on LBC News:

I think that it's important for the UK in the first place and for the West as a whole to take a realistic view on the situation on the ground [in Ukraine].

If the current [Western] policy will be continued in a sense of sending troops [military equipment], providing money, paying the Ukrainian budget, we will quickly arrive to a point when Ukraine became a failed state.

It has no economy because industry doesn't work, agriculture is 40% less, half of the Ukrainian population is now out of the country and has no intention to return.

Find out more

#Food4Thought

🎙 Christelle Néant, a French journalist and the Editor-in-Chief of the Donbass Insider website, who has lived in Donbass for several years, told RIA Novosti about French mercenaries participating in the conflict in Ukraine:

💬 French mercenaries have been fighting on the Ukrainian side since 2014, and not just since 2022. As soon as the war broke out in Donbass, French mercenaries immediately joined the fight on Ukraine’s side.

Most of them were neo-Nazis, fighting in neo-Nazi battalions such as Azov and Right Sector.

💬 We also saw people who had never fought and who were not neo-Nazis, but who believed in all the NATO propaganda. They left Ukraine in 2022.

Now the only people who have stayed are here for safari, so to speak: Russophobes, neo-Nazis, and those who are following NATO’s lead and hold strong anti-Russia sentiments.

🗓 On January 20, Crimea celebrates Republic Day. The holiday commemorates the referendum of 1991, when the absolute majority of Crimean residents voted to re-establish the Crimean Autonomous Republic.

Interesting facts:

1️⃣ Crimea has had a close connection with Russia for centuries. As far as in 988–989, Grand Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich converted to Christianity in the then Tauric Chersonese. Centuries later, on April 19, 1783, Empress Catherine the Great signed a manifesto on the accession of Crimea to the Russian Empire.

2️⃣ The Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (CASSR) was originally established as part of the RSFSR in 1921. In 1945 it became the Crimean Region. In 1954, Crimea was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR; First Secretary of the CPSU’s Crimean Regional Committee, Pavel Titov, opposed the move and was relieved of his post.

3️⃣ The sovereignty referendum, which was held on January 20, 1991 to decide on re-establishing the CASSR, was the first plebiscite in the Soviet Union’s history. Voters were asked whether they supported re-establishing the CASSR as an entity of the USSR and a participant in the Union Treaty. A total of 93% of residents voted for autonomy. In the same year, a law was passed to re-establish the CASSR.

4️⃣ The 1991 Crimean referendum was the first attempt to determine the future of Crimea based on the will of its residents. To a large extent, this plebiscite served as the starting point for the peninsula’s reunification with Russia in 2014.

5️⃣ Republic Day was established in 2009. In 2014, after Crimea’s reunification with Russia, the holiday was included in the regional law on holidays.

6️⃣ On March 18, 2014, President of Russia Vladimir Putin and the top officials from Crimea and Sevastopol signed the Treaty on the Accession of the Republic of Crimea to Russia. This was the result of the referendum held on March 16, 2014, where 96% of voters chose the peninsula’s reunification with Russia.

Ever since #CrimeaIsRussia once again and forever henceforth.

💬Andrei Kelin to Andrew Marr on LBC News:

I hardly imagine [the military conflict between Russia and the Baltic states].

As President Putin has stated many times we have no intention to fight against other countries in the region.

Find out more

🎙 Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s response to a media question

❓ What would be your comment regarding the statement released by the Government of Germany on its intention to take a stand against the Republic of South Africa which has instituted proceedings at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of perpetrating genocide against the Arab population in Gaza Strip?

💬 We were not surprised by the German Government’s decision to oppose the Republic of South Africa which has filed a case with the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of subjecting people in Gaza to genocide. This move was predicated on the unfettered support Berlin has always lent to Israel while dismissing any possible consequences. Germany has been asserting its unwavering commitment to this policy for quite a long time as one of the main unspoken tenets of the so-called rules-based order as defined by Washington.

By acting this way, German political elites seem to have caused Israel more harm than good. In the corresponding Government statement, Berlin used language which reads: “in view of Germany’s history and the crime against humanity of the Shoah” – thereby positioning itself as an expert in committing mass atrocities and exterminating people.

It seems that Germany has once again forgotten that under UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/60/7 and several other international instruments, the Holocaust is defined as the persecution and mass extermination of people representing various ethnic and social groups by the Nazis. There is also the OSCE’s Berlin Declaration setting forth the need to promote the importance of respecting all ethnic and religious groups without any distinction.

There have been many historical precedents of criminals perpetrating serious crimes but then mending their ways and using their knowledge about their unlawful practices to prevent similar wrongdoing from happening again. However, this always required effective regret and repentance and an unconditional recognition of one’s guilt without making even the slightest attempt to justify one’s crimes, let alone repeat them <...>

❗️ Just like 80 years ago, Berlin has once again opted for dividing people on ethnic grounds, albeit on a new, more sophisticated level.

Let me give you several examples.

Berlin has persistently refused to pay compensation to people of non-Jewish background who lived in Leningrad during the siege. It believes that Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Finno-Ugric people, Armenians, Georgians, Moldovans and many others are not ennoscriptd to receive money from the German Government <...>

Germany has surpassed other countries in the European Union in zealously defending the Kiev regime which has made the glorification of Nazi accomplices a key domestic and foreign policy tenet <...>

Berlin persists in its refusal to recognise Nazi crimes against our people as genocide. Russian investigative bodies and courts have compiled a wide body of evidence exposing war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide by the Third Reich troops across various regions of our country.

<...>

☝️ We believe that these and other similar and multiple examples constitute a sufficient body of evidence for Germany to officially recognise as genocide the crimes committed by the third Reich against our country.

All this leads to the conclusion that in the context of the ongoing proceedings at the International Court of Justice, Berlin decided to single out the Holocaust issue by setting it apart from all other aspects of its guilty historical acts against humanity. Moreover, it refuses to view it in a holistic manner. Instead, Berlin adjusts its perspective as it deems fit to suit its momentary considerations.

Read in full

Sunday’s missile strike against Donetsk, claiming dozens of innocent lives, tears up the Western narrative that seeks to whitewash the Zelensky regime’s crimes as having been somehow caused by the launch of Russia’s Special Military Operation.

❗No, terrorist attacks against Donbass have been an inherent part of Kiev’s brutal “playbook” since 2014, and the West is complicit.

Now the liberation of Avdeevka, from which the rocket strike appears to have originated, and pushing back the neo-Nazi forces away from Russian borders is the only path to peace and security for our countrymen.

Watch the exclusive report from The Islander's Steve Sweeney: Donetsk Marketplace Tragedy.

❗️ The neo-Nazi regime in Kiev, supported by the United States and its satellites, has committed yet another brutal terrorist act against the civilian population of Russia.

On the morning of January 21, armed units of Bandera’s followers [Stephan Bandera - a Hitlerite crony & WWII war criminal, the idol of the Ukranian neo-Nazis & nationalists aka the banderovites] deliberately targeted a market and shops in Tekstilshchik, a neighbourhood in the Kirovsky District of Donetsk. A total of six artillery rounds were fired at the busiest areas in town causing a large number of casualties. According to reports, at least 27 people were killed and 25 were injured.

Read in full

It was established that the shelling was coming from Avdeyevka, which is still controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and that the types of weapons supplied by the West were used. This is further confirmation of the Western countries’ direct involvement in the conflict, implicating them in the criminal acts committed by the Zelensky regime.

Russia strongly condemns this treacherous attack on civilians. The West’s unrestrained desire to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia using their Ukrainian puppets to do the fighting, thoughtlessly supporting them without any limits, is pushing the Kiev regime to increasingly reckless steps, including terrorist attacks, massive violations of international humanitarian law and war crimes.

☝️ Russia calls on all responsible governments and relevant international agencies to strongly condemn this brutal act of terrorism. Their silence would mean tacit approval of the murder of civilians and encourage Ukrainian neo-Nazis to commit even more terrible atrocities.

The terrorist attacks by the Kiev regime clearly demonstrate that it has no political will for peace and the settlement of the conflict by diplomatic means. No threats to security or acts of terrorism must be coming from the territory of Ukraine.

📹 © RIA NOVOSTI

🎙Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s reply to a media question on the investigation into the sabotage of the Nord Streams

❓Question: The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency decided that Sweden is not obliged to include in its national quota the 5.8 million tonnes of harmful substances that were released into the air due to the act of sabotage at the Nord Stream gas pipelines. What do you think about this?

💬 Maria Zakharova: This decision shows that Stockholm is trying to avoid paying large fines for exceeding EU-established standards. <...> Thus, they concluded that Sweden is not responsible for the harmful emissions into the environment due to the bombing of the gas pipelines that run between Russia and Germany.

<...>

❗️Far from facilitating a meticulous and unbiased investigation into the deliberate sabotage of the operation of a large international energy facility, the Swedish authorities are not willing to share out its environmental consequences.

The Danish authorities are not interested in a serious investigation into the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines either. Copenhagen and Stockholm continue to reject any interaction with Russia on this issue. In December 2023, the Prosecutor-General’s Office of Denmark refused a request from its Russian counterpart to provide legal assistance in investigating the act of sabotage on the Nord Stream-1 and Nord Stream-2 gas pipelines.

☝️ Despite the artificial obstacles, we will continue insisting on a transparent and depoliticised investigation into these acts with the participation of competent Russian agencies and with Gazprom.

Read in full

💬Andrei Kelin to Andrew Marr on LBC News

The main idea of the US administration right now is to include Ukraine into the EU structures and NATO to put this burden into Europe onto European shoulders.<…>

The US should finally concentrate on its own policy and allow other states live in a multipolar world.

Finally, we have lots of powers - India, China, South Africa, Brazil, Russia. All of us would like to keep up independent policy.

Read/watch the full interview

🇷🇺🇱🇧 On January 22, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants of the Republic of Lebanon Abdallah Bou Habib in New York.

In the course of the discussion, Sergey Lavrov underscored the imperative of avoiding an escalation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and involvement of other states in the region, in particular, Lebanon. In this context, he emphasised the importance of collective efforts to achieve an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and address urgent humanitarian problems. The Minister confirmed Russia’s consistent support for the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Lebanon, and emphasised that Lebanon must find consensus solutions to the issues on the national agenda as soon as possible, without external interference.

The Ministers also discussed topical issues in the traditionally friendly Russian-Lebanese relations. They confirmed the mutual commitment of Moscow and Beirut to deepen political dialogue and expand mutually beneficial cooperation in trade, the economy, humanitarian sphere, and other areas.

#RussiaLebanon

🇷🇺🇮🇷 On January 22, in New York, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on the sidelines of the ministerial open debates at the UN Security Council on the situation in the Palestinian territories.

The Ministers had a comprehensive exchange of opinions on the current agenda in the Middle East and expressed their support for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and securing conditions for humanitarian assistance to the residents of the enclave.

❗️ They expressed general concern about the tensions in the Red Sea, which escalated abruptly as a result of the irresponsible use of force by the US and several associated countries against Yemen.

The Ministers discussed a broad range of issues on the bilateral agenda, with a focus on implementing the agreements reached at the highest level, including the talks between the presidents of Russia and Iran in Moscow on December 7, 2023. They stressed their mutual readiness to continue building up mutually beneficial practical cooperation across all priority areas.

🤝 The Parties once again confirmed their adherence to the fundamental principles of Russia-Iran relations and the UN Charter, including non-interference in domestic affairs, mutual respect for each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in its entirety.

#RussiaIran

🇷🇺🇹🇷 On January 22, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with Foreign Minister of the Republic of Türkiye Hakan Fidan in New York.

The Ministers held an in-depth discussion of topical issues related to bilateral trade and economic cooperation. They emphasised the importance of continuing to work together to maintain and further expand mutually beneficial ties. They touched upon the progress of key Russian-Turkish projects in the energy sector and talked about the schedule of upcoming bilateral contacts.

☝️ The Ministers exchanged views on a number of international issues and agreed on the need to coordinate the two countries’ actions in order to find mutually acceptable solutions to acute regional problems, primarily with regard to the situation in the Gaza Strip, Syria, the Middle East as a whole, as well as in the Black Sea region and the South Caucasus.

#RussiaTürkiye

📹FM Sergey Lavrov’s address on Russia’s CIS chairmanship in 2024 (January 23, 2024)

💬 From January 1, 2024, Russia took up the chairmanship of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

• The Chairmanship Concept, adopted by the President of the Russia, outlines our priorities for further cooperation within the CIS. <...>

• We plan to pay special attention to deepening economic interaction, above all, in food and energy security, as well as in industrial cooperation, transport and logistics, the environment, innovation, and digital transformation.

• At the same time, our guiding principle will be the interconnectivity of the economies of the CIS states and the Eurasian Economic Union <...>.

• Naturally, against the backdrop of global instability and increased tensions along the CIS external borders, issues of ensuring security in all dimensions will be on the agenda. <...>

• Our attention will also focus on the task of improving foreign policy coordination. The development of joint political statements on relevant international and regional issues has become a good tradition. <...>

• Plans call for an expansion of cultural and humanitarian ties as a key area of work within the CIS. <...>

• We value the solidarity of the CIS countries in the fight against the glorification of Nazism and the falsification of history. We will continue with our joint efforts to defend the truth about our common past. <...>

• We are going to pay a great deal of attention to improving the image of the CIS on the global stage and developing its contacts with friendly organisations <...>

☝️The CIS continues to make a major contribution to the strengthening of stability in the Eurasian space and to promoting wide regional cooperation.

🇷🇺 Russia intends to conduct active work to further improve its authority as a representative and efficient dialogue and cooperation platform. We will continue to develop multilateral cooperation with our partners based on the principles of equality, mutual respect and neighbourliness.

#CIS2024