🎙️Embassy comment on statements by British officials on the results of the presidential elections in Russia

▪︎UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron has made knowingly biased assessments on the results of presidential elections in the Russian Federation that took place on March 15-17.

▪︎In the past few days British officials surpassed themselves in hypocritical statements designed to discredit the free expression of the will of the Russian people. British diplomatic and consular missions in our country were on the verge of blatantly interfering in its internal affairs by practically inciting to spoil ballots during polling days.

▪︎David Cameron’s unacceptable speculations about the “undemocratic” nature of the elections cannot be interpreted as anything but evidence of London’s desperation. After all, machinations of the collective West to change our country’s “behavior” by destabilising it have failed.

☝️Voting results have convincingly demonstrated the maturity and unity of Russian society and its comprehensive support for the foreign policy course of our country’s leadership. Apparently, having grasped this, the British establishment has become nervous.

❗We call on London to abandon its confrontational logic and the promotion of anti-Russian rhetoric. It is immoral to sponsor and cover up the pervasive crimes of the Ukrainian military that relishes its strikes against new regions of the Russian Federation – including polling stations located within their territory, which are a priori non-military targets.

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#CrimeaIsRussia

🗓 Russia & Crimea have gone hand in hand throughout history dating all the way back to the second half of the X century, when the peninsula’s eastern part was included in the Ancient Rus' Principality of Tmutarakan.

☦️ The Rus' reinforced its position in Crimea after the successful campaign by Grand Prince Vladimir against the Byzantine city of Korsun' in 988. It was here, in Tauric Chersonesus that Vladimir the Great was baptised & initiated Christianisation of Rus' — a decision that largely determined the future of our Motherland, its cultural & historical path.

In the XIII century, the Golden Horde seized Crimean lands. After its collapse, the Crimean Khanate, vassal of the Ottoman Empire, emerged in the XV century. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774, Russia ended the Ottoman domination on the peninsula.

📜 In 1783, Catherine the Great issued a Manifesto on the accession of the Crimean Peninsula to the Russian Empire. This was done on requests of Crimeans themselves.

⚔️ Subsequently, Russian soldiers bravely & honourably defended the peninsula against Russia's enemies. We remember the heroes who fell during the Defence of Sevastopol in 1854-1855 & the Soviet soldiers during the Great Patriotic War's Battle for Crimea.

In 1954, Crimea was incorporated into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic against the will of its residents & in violation of the law.

🗳 In the 1990s, residents of Crimea repeatedly attempted to receive broader autonomy from Ukraine & enhance their historical ties with Russia.

What did Kiev do? It substantially limited the rights & freedoms of the Crimeans. And following the February 2014 coup d'état & the seizing of power by the nationalists, there emerged a very tangible threat of the same kind of brutal violence to be used against the peninsula's residents.

🇷🇺 On March 18, 2014 the much-awaited reunification took place — based on the free expression of will by Crimeans in the March 16 referendum Crimea acceded to Russia, reuniting once again & now forever!

🎙️Обращение Посла России А.В.Келина к российским гражданам, проживающим в Великобритании

17 марта с.г. в Лондоне на избирательном участке в Посольстве России состоялись выборы Президента Российской Федерации.

По нескольким направлениям и в особых случаях было проведено выездное голосование. Всего своим конституционным правом воспользовались около 2,7 тысяч граждан России. Эта цифра несколько больше, чем число проголосовавших в других странах Европы, где был образован только один избирательный участок – в российских посольствах.

Хотели бы выразить искреннюю признательность всем российским гражданам, которые пришли проголосовать на выборах Президента России, выразили свою гражданскую позицию, проявили подлинный патриотизм. Благодарны вам за поддержку и стремление быть вместе с народом России в этот ответственный для нашей страны день.

Мы знаем, что не все граждане России, отстоявшие в длинной очереди, смогли посетить избирательный участок до момента его закрытия в 20:00. Но таковы были предварительные договоренности с местными властями, полицией и ЦИК России, о чем мы широко информировали избирателей в Великобритании. Отметим также, что продвижению избирателей к участку помешали демонстративные акции тех, кто пытался воспрепятствовать нормальному проведению голосования.

Все, кто пришел на выборы Президента Российской Федерации - без исключения - патриоты своей страны.

Главное - сообща мы продемонстрировали сплоченность, решительность и убежденность в том, что будущее России определяем мы сами – граждане Российской Федерации.

#Выборы2024

🌷Today marks International Nowruz Day, a holiday symbolising new beginnings and the arrival of spring.

Nowruz (Persian — "new day") is considered the start of the new year by more than 300 million people around the world and has been celebrated for over 3,000 years in Central Asia, the Balkans, the Black Sea Basin, the Caucasus, the Middle East and other regions.

📜 Nowruz originated in Ancient Persia. It marked the arrival of summer and the defeat of the evil spirit. The holiday acquired particular importance during the reign of the Achaemenid dynasty in the 400s-500s BC. Nowruz regained its status under the Safavid dynasty, with the holiday rituals becoming increasingly elaborate up to the XX century as a means of demonstrating power and grandeur.

Over time, Nowruz has not only become a national holiday but a cultural event, which unites various nations and faiths in mutual respect.

🇷🇺 Nowruz is an essential and integral part of the historical, cultural, and spiritual heritage of many peoples of Russia and is widely celebrated in Dagestan, Tatarstan, and Bashkiria.

Celebrations will take to the streets of Moscow as well. Participants of the 18th citywide festival will share stories about family traditions, showcase their national cultures and rituals.

🎉 Happy Nowruz to everyone celebrating the holiday of renewal and spring! Many wishes of success and family well-being!

#InternationalNowruzDay #Nowruz2024

🎙 President Vladimir Putin's address to Russian citizens on the outcome of the presidential election (March 21, 2024)

💬 The official results of the presidential election were announced today. The election campaign, which was extremely important for our country, society and citizens, has come to a close.

<...>

This election campaign was intense and extremely important. At the end of the day, we were choosing Russia's future direction; we were deciding on our own future and that of our children. The absolute majority of the voters who cast their ballot realised the significance of this event.

Once again, I would like to thank everyone who took part in the voting, regardless of which candidate you voted for. Most importantly, you have shown that you treat your civic duty with respect, value freedom of choice and your vote, and to reiterate, every one of your votes was of great importance.

<...>

Thank you for your support. It is more important to me than the formal victory in the elections. It signifies support for the political and economic policies of our country and our overall results, which, of course, should be more extensive, but are nonetheless making Russia stronger and more independent.

A few words about the performance of election commissions at all levels. As always, you acted efficiently and competently, adhering to the principles of transparency and strict compliance with the law. The members of the election commissions in our historical territories showed courage and bravery, serving as an example for voters.

Thank you for your trust. <...> We will do everything possible to ensure the successful implementation of the ambitious national projects and programmes that I recently outlined in my Address.

🇷🇺 The elections have revealed that Russia today is one big, closely-knit family. We are steadfastly following the historical path we have chosen. We have confidence in ourselves, our abilities, and our future.

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#Election2024

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview for the documentary series Oil (Moscow, March 21, 2024)

Key points:

🔹 All natural resources on which economic development, influence and might depend are instruments of political struggle. <...> The Americans have been using oil and oil prices as a weapon.

🔹 What is the oil price cap imposed on Russian oil by the Americans, which the West was pressured to adopt as well? It is flagrant interference in the workings and principles of the free market, which the Americans have been promoting for decades.

🔹 The pinnacle of using hydrocarbons as a weapon was the explosion of the Nord Stream pipelines. <...> It is evidence of the current German government’s impotence and inability not just to think independently but to even protect its vital interests.

🔹 Everyone is well aware of Washington’s methods. <...> When talking with Washington, you need to firmly press for your own advantage and never expect it to fulfil its sweet promises.

🔹 The OPEC Plus, where both Iran and Russia are members, has a clear formula for reaching agreements and finding compromises. It has been used for years, and nobody has been disadvantaged or dissatisfied.

🔹 In Syria, the oil and grain production is concentrated in the northeast, and the Americans have occupied this area. They are producing oil there and are stealing it. <...> This is colonialism pure and simple.

🔹 Oil, gas and hydrocarbons in general will continue to play the key role in the development of the global economy and in ensuring the well-being of nearly all countries for a long time to come, for many decades.

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#AntiFake

❗️On Britain’s global disinformation campaigns

📰 The ongoing conspiracy campaign in Britain, sparked by the prolonged absence from the public eye of Princess Catherine of Wales, wife of the heir to the British throne, Prince William, has shed new light on the corrupt nature of the British political establishment. At its core lies a fundamental desire to exert complete control over public opinion, both at home and far beyond its borders, achieved through large-scale media manipulation and the dissemination of fabricated narratives. <...>

🔻 The British ecosystem of lies and provocations goes beyond just collusion between the political class, security services and the media aimed at interfering in other countries’ internal affairs. Russia has already commented on this.

🔻 In fact, these entities have merged, even though in a democratic state they should remain independent from each other. Detailed information about the long-standing collaboration between the British security services, Foreign Office, the media and NGOs to recruit foreign activists and journalists is available on the website of the investigative online resource Underside.

🔻 The British authorities wait for an opportune moment to plant a carefully crafted version of events and then accuse undesirable media outlets of spreading fake news. For example, the British media accused RIA Novosti and Sputnik of disseminating fake news about the alleged death of Charles III, although the articles they published contained completely opposite information. <...> The Russian media outlets were accused of trying to check the widely circulated “sensational” news <...>

🔻 It is evident that the UK has finally secured the status of a factory manufacturing falsehoods. It has completely abandoned the culture of honest dialogue between the authorities and the public, as evidenced by a ceaseless stream of contrived “sensations,” stage-managed misinformation plants, and scandals featuring patently false assertions by top national leaders.

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🎙 Briefing by MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (Moscow, March 22, 2024)

🔹 Russian presidential election
🔹 FM Sergey Lavrov’s schedule
🔹 Ukrainian crisis
🔹 IOC's discrimination against Russian athletes
🔹 NATO Secretary General's annual report 2023
🔹 25th Anniversary of NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia
🔹 EU's abuses in the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines
🔹 Summit for Democracy

📰 Read in full
📺 Watch in full

***

#Election2024

Even though the collective West and its hired provocateurs spared no effort to, first, obstruct the voting, then to smear it, to downplay its importance, to make a show out of it <...> Despite all their plans, the Westerners failed.

Our citizens who came to vote in the presidential election were the best answer to the Western information, or rather disinformation, campaign.

They wanted it the worst, but it went our way!

#Ukraine

The West continues to use Ukraine as a battleground to dispose of obsolete weapons.

The National Interest openly writes that the Zelensky regime’s allies see nothing wrong in dumping unneeded military junk and scrap metal into the embattled country under the guise of aid. That includes decommissioned French AMC-10RC tanks that were manufactured in 2000, refurbished British Challenger-2s, and American Ml Abrams tanks.

#Decolonization

London has repeatedly ignored the inconvenient legacy of its colonial past.

❗️ We call on British officials to stop enshrouding their past crimes with high-flown rhetoric. England’s ruling class must take practical steps to pay compensation to the descendants of slave trade victims, and finally apologise to other peoples for their brutal treatment.

It will not be an easy path, but London has to do it.

❌ Learn about what the MSM or Hollywood will pretend don't exist.

#See4Yourself & #Think4Yourself

🎬 VolunTears — an RT Doc Film.

During the most dire times for residents of Donbass, suffering from barbaric attacks by the Ukrainian neo-Nazis, a group of Russian entrepreneurs volunteered to help the people of the recently de-occupied territories, bringing food and water to those in need, and helping with evacuation to Russia.

The locals share their stories about the atrocities of the Ukrainian nationalists who used scorched earth tactics, killing civilians in cold blood, and destroying houses and infrastructure before fleeing as the Russian forces were advancing.

📹 Watch the full film by RT Documentary about volunteers’ everyday life and the conditions the people had to live in during the occupation of Ukrainian Nazi battalions.

⚡️ Russian MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova:

The Russian Foreign Ministry is receiving phone calls with condolences from ordinary citizens from all around the globe following the horrible tragedy at the Krokus City Hall venue in Moscow. They are expressing the strongest condemnation of this bloody terrorist attack, transpiring right before the eyes of the entire world.

As the Russian authorities have already stated, all efforts at the current moment are devoted to saving the people [still at the site of the attack].

❗️ The international community is obliged to condemn this horrendous crime!

We mourn all those who have lost their lives in the despicable terrorist attack at the Сroсus City Hall venue in Moscow

Мы осуждаем теракт в подмосковном «Крокус Сити Холле». Это ужасная трагедия.

Мы выражаем искренние соболезнования родным и близким пострадавших и погибших от сегодняшних событий.

The Secretary-General condemned in the strongest possible terms today’s terrorist attack at a concert hall outside Moscow, in which at least 40 people were reportedly killed and over 100 others injured.

The Secretary-General conveyed his deep condolences to the bereaved families and the people and the Government of the Russian Federation. He wishes those injured a speedy recovery.

💬 Russian MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova: We thank the Secretary-General for the timely correction and articulation of a clear position!

🕯С глубокой ночи к Посольству России в Великобритании несут цветы в память о жертвах террористического акта в Крокус Сити Холле.

***

🕯Flowers have been placed at the Embassy wall since late last night. Thank you for your messages of support.

🎙 Обращение Президента России В.В.Путина в связи с терактом в «Крокус Сити Холле»

💬 Обращаюсь к вам в связи с кровавым, варварским террористическим актом, жертвами которого стали десятки мирных, ни в чём не повинных людей – наши соотечественники, в том числе дети, подростки, женщины.

<...>

Выражаю глубокие, искренние соболезнования всем, кто потерял своих родных и близких. Вместе с вами скорбит вся страна, весь наш народ.

🕯 24 марта объявляю днём общенационального траура.

<...>

Что касается расследования этого преступления и результатов оперативно-разыскных действий, то в настоящее время можно сказать следующее. Все четверо непосредственных исполнителей теракта найдены и задержаны.

❗️ Они пытались скрыться и двигались в сторону Украины, где, по предварительным данным, для них с украинской стороны было подготовлено окно для перехода государственной границы.

Всего задержано 11 человек. Федеральная служба безопасности России, другие правоохранительные органы работают над выявлением, вскрытием всей пособнической базы террористов: тех, кто обеспечивал их транспортом, намечал пути отхода от места преступления, готовил схроны, тайники с оружием и боеприпасами.

<...>

Все исполнители, организаторы и заказчики этого преступления понесут справедливое и неизбежное наказание. Кем бы они ни были, кто бы их ни направлял. Повторю: мы установим и покараем каждого, кто стоит за спиной террористов, кто готовил это злодеяние, этот удар по России, по нашему народу.

Мы знаем, что такое угроза терроризма. Рассчитываем здесь на взаимодействие со всеми государствами, которые искренне разделяют нашу боль и готовы на деле реально объединять усилия в борьбе с общим врагом, международным терроризмом, со всеми его проявлениями.

Террористов, убийц, нелюдей, у которых нет и не может быть национальности, ждёт одна незавидная участь – возмездие и забвение.

<...>

☝️ Россия не раз проходила через тяжелейшие, порой невыносимые испытания, но становилась ещё сильнее. Так будет и сейчас.

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🎙️Реакция британских официальных лиц на террористический акт в Крокус Сити Холле


💬Министр иностранных дел Великобритании Д.Кэмерон

▪︎Соединенное Королевство самым решительным образом осуждает смертоносную террористическую атаку в Крокус Сити Холле вблизи Москвы.

▪︎Мы выражаем искренние соболезнования и глубочайшее сочувствие семьям многочисленных погибших.

▪︎Ничто и никогда не сможет оправдать такой ужасающей жестокости.


💬Теневой министр иностранных дел Великобритании Д.Лэмми

▪︎Террористическое нападение на российских граждан прошлой ночью в Москве было ужасающим.

▪︎Мы осуждаем это самым решительным образом.

▪︎Наши мысли с каждой жертвой и семьями пострадавших от этих подлых действий.


💬Первый министр Шотландии Х.Юсаф

▪︎Ужасные кадры из Крокус Сити Холла в Москве.

▪︎Не может быть никакого оправдания нападениям и убийствам невинных граждан.

▪︎Мои мысли с теми, кто пострадал и их семьями.


💬Первый министр Уэльса В.Гетин

▪︎Мы решительно осуждаем нападение на Крокус Сити Холл в Москве.

▪︎Нанесение увечий и убийство невинных граждан не могут быть оправданы.

▪︎Мои мысли со всеми теми, кто пострадал.

#КрокусСитиХолл

Edinburghers and Russians living in Scotland lay flowers at the Russian Consulate General in memory of the victims of the terrorist attack in Moscow.

We are sincerely grateful to everyone who did not remain indifferent to this terrible tragedy and shares the pain with the people of Russia in this difficult hour.

The staff of the Consulate General expresses deep condolences to the families of the victims and wishes a speedy recovery to all those injured.

🎙 President Vladimir Putin's address following the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall (March 23, 2024)

💬 I am addressing you today in connection with a horrific and savage act of terrorism, which claimed the lives of dozens of peaceful, innocent people – including children, teenagers, and women.

<...>

I express my deepest and most sincere condolences to all those who have lost their loved ones. The entire country, all our people are grieving together with you.

🕯 I declare March 24 a day of national mourning.

<...>

Regarding the investigation of this crime and the results of the operational search action, we can currently say the following. All four perpetrators, who were directly involved in the terrorist attack, all those who shot and killed people, have been found and apprehended.

❗️ They attempted to escape and were heading towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary information, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border.

A total of 11 people have been detained. The Federal Security Service and other law enforcement agencies are working diligently to identify and expose the accomplice base behind these terrorists: those who provided them with transport, planned escape routes from the crime scene, and prepared caches with weapons and ammunition.

<...>

All perpetrators, organisers and masterminds of this crime will face fair and inevitable punishment.

<...>

We understand what the terrorist threat means. In this regard, we rely on cooperation with all states that sincerely share our pain and are ready to really join forces in the fight against a common enemy, international terrorism and all its manifestations.

Terrorists, murderers, those inhumane individuals who have no nationality and cannot have one, face one and the same gloomy prospect – retribution and oblivion.

<...>

☝️ Russia has weathered the most arduous, sometimes unbearable trials more than once, yet it has emerged even stronger. And so it shall be now, as well.

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