💬 Russia’s MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova:

I’m interested in Annalena Baerbock’s perspective on this matter. This presents a prime opportunity for German media to demonstrate its independence by asking probing questions and for Russian media to seek the opinion of the German Embassy in Moscow.

Margarita Simonyan, Editor-in-Chief of RT:

💬 Our people in uniform shared some intriguing information with me on the day when Scholz said that NATO was not and would never be involved in the Ukrainian conflict.

The information and videos are so riveting that I immediately wanted to share them with our audiences to bring them joy.
In that captivating footage, high-ranking German officers discussed the bombing (would you believe it) of the Crimean Bridge and methods to execute it discreetly so that Scholz could keep up to his talk of non-involvement.

The Bundeswehr officers have also spilled the beans about the Americans and the Brits who, they said, had been directly involved in the conflict for a long time.

In short, it’s 40 minutes of pure delight. In this connection, I have an official journalistic inquiry for the German Ambassador, the German Foreign Minister and Chancellor Scholz personally:

What does this mean, gentlemen? Should Russia jog Germany’s memory about what happened last time when Germany blew up Russian bridges?

As your media usually say, we expect an answer today.

Because nobody knows what may happen tomorrow.

🇷🇺🇵🇸 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks during a meeting with representatives of Palestinian political parties held in Moscow on February 29, 2024

Key talking points:

💬 An unprecedented wave of violence has engulfed the Gaza Strip. In many respects, this is the result of the protracted impasse in the Middle East settlement process, caused by the US attempts to monopolise mediating efforts.

• It goes without saying that our main priority is to stop the bloodshed. We have worked on this since the first days after the October 7, 2023 attack. We have condemned the assault. But it is unacceptable to respond with collective punishment of Palestinians.

• On October 15, 2023, Russia submitted a draft resolution to the UN Security Council demanding a ceasefire. The US blocked both this draft and subsequent efforts towards this goal by repeatedly using its veto. All attempts to approve a resolution demanding a durable ceasefire have failed to result in anything.

• Relapses into large-scale confrontation were inevitable as long as we remain passive and fail to work together to address the root cause of this years-long conflict, namely to work to create a Palestinian state in keeping with UN Security Council and UN General Assembly resolutions.

• We have repeatedly advocated the resumption of direct dialogue between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority.

❗️ Clearly, the effectiveness of our efforts will depend on everyone's ability to put the interests, goals and destiny of the Palestinian people above the current fleeting considerations and differences in positions and approaches. If you announce the goal of restoring Palestinian unity on the platform of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, it will yank the trump cards out of the hands of the forces that, citing internal problems in the Palestinian territories, have used them to delay the Middle East settlement process.

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Pro-Tory The Daily Telegraph is trying to whitewash the UK Government's disastrous migration policy by rehashing a debunked 2015 myth about Russia "weaponising" refugees, this time from Africa.

Instead why not investigate the effects of Western military interventions, political and social engineering, as well as rapacious exploitation of mineral resources by multinationals on societies in Africa and elsewhere?

Clearly, Western neocolonialism is a key factor in cycles of instability, poverty and violence that create refugee flows.

#UK #Russia #Africa #Migration

💬 Russia’s MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova:

The hybrid war launched by the West against the people of Russia is well underway.

Read the trannoscript in full
Listen to the original audioleak

Here are a few excerpts from the leaked February 19, 2024, conversation between Brigadier General Frank Graefe, head of the Operations and Exercises Department of the Bundeswehr Air Force Command, Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz, Bundeswehr Air Force Inspector, and officers of the Air Operations Centre of the Bundeswehr Space Command Stephan Fenske and Frostedte, who discussed plans for attacking the Crimean Bridge.

🔊 Frostedte: Regarding the bridge, I believe that the Taurus [missiles] don’t have the necessary range, and we also need to know how effective this would be, which means we must have satellite information. I don’t know if we can quickly train Ukrainians for this mission, that is, within a month. How would a Taurus attack on the bridge look? From an operational perspective, I can’t say how quickly Ukrainians will learn to plan such missions and how long integration will take. Since we are talking about the bridge and military bases, I would say that they want to have them as soon as possible.

Fenske: I’d like to say the following about the destruction of the bridge. After thorough consideration, we unfortunately concluded that the bridge is similar in size to a landing strip. Therefore, we would need more than 10 or even 20 missiles.

Gerhartz: It is believed that the Taurus missile, if launched from a French Dassault Rafale fighter jet, can accomplish this.

Fenske: This would only make a hole in the bridge and damage it. Before making any definitive statements, we must first…

Frostedte: I’m not advocating the idea of [attacking] the bridge. I’m simply being pragmatic. We need to know what they want, and what we need to teach them. <...>

Gerhartz: We all know that they want to destroy the bridge, and the potential consequences this may have, and how [well] it is protected, because it has both military strategic and political significance. On the other hand, they also have a land corridor. There are certain concerns about maintaining direct links with the Ukrainian armed forces. Hence my question is: Can we use a diversionary tactic by sending our people to MBDA? In this case, we would only maintain direct ties with Ukraine through MBDA, which is much better than if they were connected to our Air Force.

Graefe: Mr Gerhartz, it doesn’t matter. We must be very careful from the beginning to avoid any wording that would implicate us in the conflict.

I am exaggerating a bit, of course, but if we inform the minister now that we are planning meetings and will travel by car from Poland to remain undetected, this will be seen as involvement. We won’t do this. As for the producer, we must first of all ask MBDA if they can handle this. And it doesn’t matter if our people do this in Buechel or Schrobenhausen, it will still be seen as involvement. I don’t think we should do this. We defined it as the main part of the “red line” from the very beginning, and so we will only take part in training.

We’ll tell them that we will draft a roadmap. The training period needs to be divided into several phases. A long phase will last four months, during which we will thoroughly train them, including the bridge option. A short phase will last two weeks, to teach them to use the missiles as soon as possible. And once they have been trained, we’ll ask the Brits if they would take over at that stage. I believe this would be the right course of action. Just imagine the uproar if the media were to find out about our personnel in Schrobenhausen or our car trips to Poland. I regard this option as unacceptable.

<...>

🔊 Gerhartz: We are fighting a war that uses many more modern technologies than our good ol' Luftwaffe did.

🇷🇺🇰🇿📞 Russia's President Vladimir Putin and President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev spoke over the phone.

As a follow-up to the exchange of opinions in Kazan on February 21, the Presidents discussed certain current issues on the bilateral agenda, with a particular focus on the implementation of joint projects in trade, the economy, transport, logistics and energy.

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev specifically emphasised the substantive and forward-looking nature of the Russian President's Address to the Federal Assembly.

🤝 The leaders reaffirmed their commitment to comprehensively enhancing the relationship of allied and strategic partnership between Russia and Kazakhstan.

#RussiaKazakhstan

🇷🇺🇧🇾📞 Russia's President Vladimir Putin had a phone conversation with President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko.

President Putin once again congratulated Alexander Lukashenko on the successful parliamentary and municipal elections in Belarus, which were held on February 25, 2024.

The leaders had an in-depth discussion on current issues related to furthering friendly #RussiaBelarus relations, based on the principles of allied and strategic partnership, as well as key aspects of the international situation.

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks during a meeting with Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovakia Juraj Blanar (Antalya, March 2, 2024)

💬 It is a pleasure to meet you. We are observing the formation of Slovakia’s new government and the renewed emphasis on national interests in its foreign policy.

We prefer to collaborate with states where elected governments give top priority to national interests, as Slovakia, Hungary and many other countries do. We respect this.

We understand that, in addition to being a sovereign state, Slovakia is also a member of EU and NATO, which entails certain issues. In this regard, we appreciate even more the ability of Prime Minister Robert Fico and his government to form their own opinion on the global situation.

🤝 We are grateful for the invitation extended by Robert Fico to the descendants of the Slovak National Uprising participants to attend the 80th anniversary celebration of that event in August 2024. The President of Russia described it as a humane gesture, and we highly appreciate it.

We look forward to the resumption of interparliamentary relations. Both chambers of our parliament have always been open to such contacts. There is a group for cooperation with Slovak legislators. As far as I know, this work has been suspended or terminated altogether in your parliament.

State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin has a long-standing relationship with Deputy Speaker of the National Council of Slovakia Andrej Danko, including when he held other positions.

🎙 President Vladimir Putin's address to the participants in the opening ceremony of the World Youth Festival

💬 Our country has already held three of these large youth forums, and each time they confirmed that there are no borders or dividing lines for younger generations. Here you can interact with whomever you wish and find the knowledge and experience you need.

This was proven by the hundreds of thousands of applications to take part in the festival that we received from 190 countries. The only thing we regret is not being able to accept all of them.

Right now, representatives of almost 300 ethnic groups are gathered here, on this stage. Here in Russia, we know very well how valuable this diversity is, and what a powerful driver of progress and mutual spiritual enrichment it is. <...>

☝️ Multi-ethnic unity is our supreme value, and it has largely shaped the principles by which our state and society live and develop today.

I am speaking about equality and justice, traditions of a strong family and mutual assistance, about serving one’s Fatherland and feeling responsibility for its destiny. I know that these values are shared by the vast majority of the Earth’s inhabitants.

This is why we must take care of them and defend them together, fulfil our dreams together, and help each other to make the lives of billions of people better. We must work together for the generations to come, fight poverty and terrorism, diseases and drug trafficking, preserve the unique natural riches, cultural heritage, and all the beauty and diversity of the planet.

This world has no place for racism, dictatorship, double standards or lies, and people are free to speak their language and follow the beliefs and traditions of their ancestors. <...>

🤝 I am confident that you will get a colossal charge of positive emotion from the festival and return home with love for Russia.

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🇷🇺🇸🇰 On March 2, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovakia Juraj Blanar on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Antalya, Türkiye.

The Ministers exchanged opinions on the most urgent issues on the international agenda, including the situation around Ukraine.

The Russian side confirmed its readiness to restore relations with Slovakia at the inter-parliamentary level, as well as in cultural, humanitarian and military-memorial spheres.

#RussiaSlovakia

#Opinion by Russian MFA Spox Maria Zakharova

💬 Take note that comments from Germany’s government agencies regarding the scandalous audio do not come through their official spokespersons or written statements posted on their verified internet resources. Instead, they are reported by the media, quoting unnamed sources or are monstrously multidirectional.

Thus, Olaf Scholz promises to sort things out, whereas Roderich Kiesewetter, deputy chair of Bundestag’s committee that supervises intelligence, does not see anything problematic in the failure of German counterintelligence and the military.

Now the German Defence Ministry leaked to the DPA information agency and the Tagesschau news service that the German military’s discussion of plans to attack the Crimean bridge had been intercepted. And all this is done anonymously again, which means there’s no need to take responsibility.

Is this surprising? Not at all. What does it reveal?

1. The absence of a single authority in Germany. The elites, authorities and the people do not hold each other responsible, nor is there any feedback. This is a clear indication of the lack of democracy.

2. The sole purpose of media outlets in Germany is to maintain the illusion of a popular democracy. All information is distorted, and its presentation is carefully curated, while the authorities evade responsibility.

3. There is a power within Germany’s state apparatus which remains invisible and unknown to German voters. It has nothing to do with the electoral system and currently governs Germany. Germans write about Schattenstaat – a shadow state. But all materials on this topic are ridiculed, deleted and censored, while the authors are labelled as conspiracy theorists.

☝️ I think the German people have an unprecedented opportunity to save themselves now – to pull at this thread and get government officials to engage in a direct discussion about what is going on in Germany, what the leaked conversation is all about, who is running the country and where they are taking it.