#Opinion by Maria Zakharova

💬 Western “democracy” in nutshell. Latest news

Three weeks ago, Sweden finally joined NATO. We know that the Swedes themselves were never asked about it, but a few days ago, Göteborgs-Posten, a Swedish newspaper, published an opinion poll on what the Swedish people think about their country’s membership in the alliance. The poll involved over a thousand respondents aged over 18.

These numbers are highly indicative of the general sentiment.

Participants were asked whether or not they approved of the potential deployment of Swedish soldiers to zones of hostilities or NATO exercises. Three out of five respondents gave a negative response.

The decision of the Ulf Kristersson Cabinet to join NATO has polarised the Swedish public, with half of the population vehemently opposing their county’s membership in the North Atlantic alliance.

The Swedes are still coming to terms with the gravity of the situation. “It looks like Sweden waged a war against the United States and suffered a crushing defeat,” says a Swedish expert, Jan Guillou, in his article published by Aftonbladet, a leading national political newspaper. He is echoed by a columnist from the Dagens Arena, former Ambassador to Russia Sven Hirdman: “Now Sweden is a US vassal.” The Swedish people ask direct questions: “Does the increased NATO and US military presence in Sweden mean that our country is now entangled in NATO’s military controversy with Russia?”

They are starting to suspect something.

NATO membership is for Sweden a risky and costly change of priorities. The people of Sweden certainly do not need it. That’s why the government decided not to hold a referendum on the matter.

The true reason is that, apart from the Washington-oriented provisional government in Stockholm, nobody actually wanted to stumble into NATO.

#Opinion by Russian MFA Spox Maria Zakharova

💬 President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach made a telltale admission to pranksters.

This is what he said:

“Now those who support [the Russian Government] cannot take part [in the Olympic Games]. We have a special review panel at the level of the IOC which is working with an independent company, and they are monitoring the internet, media and public declarations. So, if an athlete said something somewhere, he won’t be able to take part in the Games. We also offered the Ukrainian side, and not only offered but asked them to provide us with their knowledge about behaviour of such athletes or officials. And they cannot take part [in the Games].”

Thomas Bach entered into a political, administrative and apparently criminal conspiracy with one particular side to remove strong sports rivals at international competitions.

His relations with the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine and its officials and his admission about the request to watch Russian athletes must be subjected to thorough investigation.

Such behind-the-scenes agreements based on the good old German tradition of snitching are giving a new look at the scandal fuelled by the same Germans – German “investigators” of the doping scandal which unfairly kicked many Russian athletes off the sports track.

☝️ I hope international sports journalists will not ignore this egregious situation. It seems to me it is a Watergate for the IOC as a whole and personally for Bach.

⚡️ The Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation strongly condemns the attempts of external interference in the preparation and organization of presidential elections in the Russian Federation, which had begun even before the elections were officially scheduled.

The interference attempts, mostly coordinated by Washington, were made in several directions, including👇
• public statements by senior Western politicians <...>;
• attempts at creating an illegal digital platform for holding fake "alternative" elections of the president of the Russia Federation from abroad;
• violation of the legislative ban on election campaigning on voting days, namely through a protest action at noon on 17 March 2024 that was orchestrated from abroad;
• organizing and carrying out more than 12 million cyber-attacks against the Russian Federation Central Election Commission official website, including DDoS attacks;
• hampering the arrival in Russia of invited foreign (international) observers

and others.

❗️ The Kiev regime, incited by its NATO sponsors, also took actions to disrupt the elections of the president of the Russian Federation. Ukraine's armed formations shelled polling stations in the Russian Federation border regions.

It can be stated that the generally recognized principles and norms of the international law <...> were grossly violated.

<...>

☝️ The Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation calls on the United Nations, international parliamentary organizations and parliaments of foreign States to condemn the actions of the collective West that are coordinated by Washington, interfere in the preparation and organization of the elections of the president of the Russian Federation, obstruct the free expression of the will of Russian citizens, and encourage terrorism and extremism in order to destabilize the situation in Russia during the election campaign.

Read in full

🎙Russian Ambassador Andrei Kelin's interview to Nick Ferrari for LBC, 4 April, 2024

75th Anniversary of NATO

💬Andrei Kelin:

▪︎In the beginning of '90s we have tried to establish a relationship with NATO that could be a part of the European security architecture, but we were a bit idealistic at that time.

▪︎We established partnership with NATO, European Union and OSCE and we were thinking that this could really work, but the [political] development has gone a different way. Instead of gaining a comprehensive European security architecture we have got five NATO enlargements.

▪︎Now, NATO is preparing to establish a fund which will accumulate $100 bn in order to supply armaments to Ukraine and this confirms our understanding that the Alliance has become absolutely adversarial to Russia.

Watch in full

🎙 Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko's interview with RT (April 4, 2024)

Key talking points:

• The establishment of NATO resulted from the panic that gripped Western elites due to the growing authority, power and attractiveness of the Soviet Union, a country that bore all the burdens of World War II almost single-handedly, ensuring the Victory [over Nazi Germany].

• NATO is still a tool of American hegemony, a tool of subjecting Europe to American military and political interests. <...> The Americans insist that their European allies increase their military spending using the threat of pulling out of NATO to force Europeans to pay more for security.

• Сonfrontation with Russia would be political suicide in the current situation. The Russian "threat" exists only in the minds of Americans and Western Europeans, specifically those who make confrontation with Russia the basis of their foreign policy.

• The paradox that this manufactured trend of demonising Russia is necessary for the survival of NATO. NATO cannot exist without an external adversary. <...> It's obvious that NATO's role would have been reduced to zero in that case, with all the ensuing consequences for the Euro-American alliance.

• Both Sweden and Finland are rapidly increasing their military expenditures, purchasing American weaponry. <...> [It does not serve the] interests of peace and security in [Europe]. It serves American interests, and that's what matters most.

• In 1999 [NATO] bombed [Yugoslavia] for 78 days. They caused a tragedy in Iraq and the tragedy in Libya. They almost destroyed Syria and many others, like Afghanistan. That's their history. The Alliance is a source of confrontation, hostility and division.

🎙 Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s comment on occasion of the 75th anniversary of NATO

💬 Maria Zakharova: Seventy-five years ago, on April 4, 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty was signed in Washington, D.C., which marked the birth of the most aggressive military alliance of our time. <...>

The way the politicians of that time saw it, NATO was designed to become the key tool for establishing and maintaining the global hegemony of Washington and its allies, which it has remained to this day. <...>

According to its first Secretary General, Lord Ismay, the purpose of NATO was to “keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down,” and it has remained unchanged to this day.

For the US, NATO has remained a key tool to keep its European allies under control and a resource base for the US defence complex. <...>

After the Cold War ended <...> Washington and its allies engaged in armed “peacekeeping” in the Balkans, which ended in a treacherous aggression against Yugoslavia, and “fighting terrorism” in Afghanistan. NATO allies joined the US-led coalition in Iraq and carried out a “humanitarian” intervention in Libya.

❗️These interventions invariably led to entire countries being ruined and broken up.

For the third year in a row now, Washington and its satellites have been flooding Ukraine with mercenaries and weapons in order to inflict, as they say, a strategic defeat on Russia and to deplete our resources. They are using every means and methods available to the collective West and its Kiev puppets, up to and including the terrorist attacks, to get there. The alliance’s reckless schemes have failed, which fact pushes it towards moves that could entail tragic ramifications for the European and even global security.

The West has already had the chance to see that Russia is prepared for any scenario.

☝️ Our security is reliably protected and our defence capabilities are strong.

Read in full

🇷🇺 The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation:

💬 Investigators have obtained data from the mobile phones of suspects accused of carrying out the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall.

Experts analysed the mobile phones that the terrorists attempted to destroy, and their findings provided significant evidence regarding the preparations for the crime.

As directed by their handler, the terrorists chose Crocus City Hall as their target.

☝️ On the morning of February 24, 2024, the second anniversary of the start of the special military operation, one of the terrorists, acting on instructions from their handler, found screenshots online of the location of Crocus City Hall entrances and access routes, and sent them to the handler. The accused confirmed all this in the affidavit.

Additionally, the terrorist’s phone contained photos of individuals wearing camouflage uniforms with Ukrainian flags, positioned in front of damaged buildings. There was also a Ukrainian postal stamp depicting an obscene gesture.

❗️ This data suggest a possible connection between the terrorist attack and the special military operation.

Law-enforcement officers continue their operational and investigative activities to determine whether Ukrainian special services and international Islamist terrorist organisations were involved in orchestrating and financing the terrorist attack.

#Opinion by Maria Zakharova

💬 The US tried to mark one year of The Wall Street Journal employee Evan Gershkovich’s detention as best they could.

This is what one of the last March issues of The Wall Street Journal looked like — a partly blank front page with only a black-and-white photo of US citizen Evan Gershkovich, who was detained on espionage charges after being caught red-handed, and a headline on top reading ‘His story should be here.’

Indeed, Evan Gershkovich could have written a story about the terrorist shelling of Russian cities, something the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev has been doing in recent months. Reporters come under fire, too, including American journalists, so wouldn’t this make a great report from a hotspot, which the Americans themselves had created by supplying the militants with weapons and intelligence?

He could have written a long article about all his fellow journalists killed by the Kiev regime: Oles Buzina, Pavel Sheremet, Andrey Stenin, Anatoly Klyan, Igor Kornelyuk, Anton Voloshin and many others.

He could, but he must have had a reason not to do so in all those years that he was working in Russia.

He could, if he was engaged in journalism, not espionage.

By the way, I do not rule out that it was the WSJ’s way of expressing its anger with the US intelligence services, which, contrary to US laws, continue to use journalists as their agents.

It is also indicative that no US newspaper has ever printed a blank editorial in support of the American journalist Gonzalo Lira, who spent eight months in the torture chambers of a Ukrainian prison until he was killed by the Ukrainian security service in January.

Speaking of which, have they opened a criminal case on his murder in the US? I haven’t heard of it.

🎙 Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s comment regarding the disconnection of one of the Zaporozhskaya Nuclear Power Plant’s external power lines

💬 In the morning of April 4, Europe’s largest nuclear power facility, the Zaporozhskaya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), lost one of its critical sources of electricity needed to cool the reactors, as well as for other important nuclear safety functions.

Importantly, this is not the first time this has happened. The Kiev regime remains the sole threat to the facility’s security, relentlessly attempting new provocations. As recently as March 12, the Armed Forces of Ukraine used UAVs to try and destroy the ZNPP diesel fuel depot, which is critical for its backup power supply. Kiev’s sponsors reacted with non-committal statements about the ZNPP facing “constant nuclear safety risks” amid a military conflict. At the same time, everyone clearly understands what this means at the UN, the IAEA, and in world capitals, including those that continue to supervise the Zelensky regime directly.

We warn Kiev and its Western handlers against any attempts to attack or destabilise the nuclear power plant. We urge the IAEA and its leaders to actively involve the experts present at the scene to publicly record all attacks by the Ukrainian side and clearly state from whence a threat is coming to the facility’s safe operation.

❗️ Foreign Ministry statement in connection with the high-level Armenia-US-EU format meeting

💬 We consider the high-level Armenia-US-EU format meeting held in Brussels on April 5, 2024 as yet another attempt by the collective West to embroil the South Caucasus into geopolitical confrontation. Irresponsible and destructive interference of extra-regional forces in the affairs of the South Caucasus, and the desire to drive a wedge between the countries of the region and their neighbours can have devastating consequences for stability, security and economic development in the region, and provoke the emergence of new dividing lines, as well as uncontrolled growth of tensions.

Clearly, the West wants to turn Armenia into a tool for implementing its extremely dangerous designs in the South Caucasus. We know that Washington and Brussels –under the guise of ephemeral promises – are pushing for Armenia to withdraw from the CSTO and the EAEU and the Russian military base and border guards to pull out from that region. We urge the Yerevan leadership not to let the West deceive it and to lead the country down a false path, which is fraught with the security vacuum, grave economic problems and population outflow.

The amount of grant support announced by Brussels cannot compare with the multi-billion dollar benefits Armenia continues to receive from its interaction with Moscow and within the EAEU and the CIS. These factors have ensured a multiple increase in trade (fourfold since 2018) in recent years and, as a consequence, a record economic growth and improved well-being of the population.

☝️ We reiterate our commitment to comprehensively deepen and expand relations with Armenia based on the principles that are laid out in the foundational bilateral documents and agreements signed within common integration associations. We are convinced that the progressive development of the Russian-Armenian alliance will contribute to the realisation of the fundamental interests of the peoples of Russia and Armenia and strengthening of the regional security and stability.

The West also does not abandon its attempts to destroy the fundamental basis of Armenian-Azerbaijani normalisation which relies on a set of trilateral statements by the leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan made in 2020-2022, which envisage measures to unblock transport links and economic ties, to delimit the border, to draft a peace treaty, and to consolidate mutual trust through contacts of public leaders and experts. Under the pressure from Washington and Brussels, Yerevan suspended the implementation of these agreements, on many of which, particularly the issue of lifting the mutual transport blockade, the parties were close to adopting mutually acceptable solutions. Moscow remains ready to facilitate the long-awaited peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia in every possible way.

Regional and bilateral issues in the South Caucasus should be addressed in accordance with the principle of regional responsibility as agreed during the second meeting of the 3+3 Consultative Platform on October 23, 2023 in Tehran, where Armenia was a participant. We call on external players to respect these agreements, and the authorities in Yerevan to take into account the concerns of neighbouring states when pursuing their foreign policy.

#Antifake

❗️Western media’s yet another attempt to cause a rupture in interethnic peace and harmony in Russia

💬 The tragedy in the Moscow Region – the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall – served as a trigger for the once respectable American political magazine Foreign Policy to promote a biased agenda in the public space, as well as something like litmus test for journalistic consistency and humanity.

The test was failed.

The magazine’s journalists, who have lost all idea of morality and ethics <...> – have released as many as three articles about the terrorist attack, all of them very ugly.

Instead of expressing grief and sympathy for the victims of the disaster, or at least presenting the sequence of events and facts in a neutral key, Foreign Policy began to speculate about interethnic peace in Russia, whitewash the authorities of the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine, and openly discredit the work of Russian law enforcement agencies and security services. All of this is extremely far from the truth.

The investigation is carried out professionally and without political bias. The Investigative Committee of Russia is taking active search measures to identify all instigators and perpetrators of the criminal act. However, the Ukrainian trace is unequivocally proved both by the Kiev regime’s clear motives to sow discord and initiate instability in Russian society, and by other evidence, including the Ukrainian Security Service’s readiness to provide the terrorists with a “window” to cross the border.

<...>

Such behaviour by the magazine’s journalists is unacceptable, and references to freedom of speech and expression are unacceptable when we are talking about the personal tragedy of hundreds of innocent people who suffered at the hands of terrorists.

Foreign Policy is not very different from Ukrainian propagandists.

This deep decline in the quality of Foreign Policy’s work causes nothing but regret. This is a general trend for the entire US media controlled by the Washington establishment.

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🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at the ambassadorial roundtable discussion to settle the situation around Ukraine (Moscow, April 4, 2024)

Key talking points:

• April 14 marks the 10th anniversary of the Nazis that came to power in Ukraine declaring an “anti-terrorist operation” against the people of Donbass. They designated them as terrorists who must be destroyed.

• Throughout these years, we knew and said publicly that the accusations of terrorism against Donbass were baseless. Now it was confirmed by the UN International Court of Justice in its decision dated January 31, 2024, regarding the claim filed by Kiev and its masters against the Russian Federation.

• The International Court of Justice has effectively confirmed that Kiev's aggressive actions against Donetsk and Lugansk were initially based on lies.

• Today, Ukraine, if we return to its arguments about terrorism as justification for its actions, has clearly become a terrorist state. Over the past 10 years it has been terrorising citizens in its own country and beyond.

• The Foreign Ministry has recently issued official demands to the Ukrainian authorities, urging them to promptly cease any support for terrorist activities, extradite those responsible, and provide compensation for damages incurred.

• Alongside the appeal made through the Foreign Ministry, the Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office has dispatched relevant documents to the US and several other Western countries, documents based on appeals from citizens and parliamentarians and detailing the actions we expect from them in connection with the newly discovered evidence exposing the support for the Ukrainian regime’s terrorist activities and preparations from its patrons.

• We all know that Kiev is not independent, but is following instructions from its bosses and handlers implementing their anti-Russia project.

• We honestly told the Westerners that they were pushing Ukraine towards a disaster. No one wanted to listen.

Read in full

#Opinion by Maria Zakharova

💬 Zelensky said that Kiev was hostage to the election process in the US.

So... were there no elections in the United States before 2024? Or is that the absent Ukrainian presidential elections have been moved to the US?

I get it. Zelensky wants to believe he’s one of a kind and everything revolves around him, but this is not the case. He is just a line in a long list of victims of US “elections,” or, to be precise, the American system. He is one of those who were 100 percent sure the United States was their ally.

South Vietnamese got it back in the 1960s.

There was a girl once upon a time, who was South Vietnam’s greatest beauty, Tran Le Xuan. She was popularly called Madame Nhu because she was married to Ngo Dinh Nhu, the younger brother and chief advisor of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem.

Ngo Dinh Nhu and Ngo Dinh Diem, the two South Vietnamese leaders, were supported by the Americans.

Even at the height of the Vietnam War, a bloody and ugly child of the French colonial system, Washington promised Ngo Dinh Nhu and Ngo Dinh Diem its full assistance. The Americans were working hard to ensure the tragic split into the South Vietnam and North Vietnam seeking to benefit from a war in the former French colonies.

Can’t Zelensky see parallels?

The US was so delicate with South Vietnamese leaders that US Vice President Lyndon Johnson visited Saigon in 1961. Later, he, then the US President, would send hundreds of thousands of Americans to die in Vietnam. During his visit, Johnson called Diem the “Churchill of Asia.” In much the same way, the US has promoted an ambitious drug addict crowning him “the leader of a Free Ukraine”.

So, what happened to the Washington allies, Ngo Dinh Nhu and Ngo Dinh Diem? They were killed. General Duong Van Minh, considered one of the most loyal military commanders, led a coup on November 1, 1963 in which South Vietnam’s top brass were arrested and shot on the putschists’ orders.

It was only by chance that Ngo Dinh Nhu’s wife, Tran Le Xuan, wasn’t killed, because she was abroad. It was then that Madame Nhu uttered the much-remembered phrase: "Those who have the United States as an ally need have no enemies". And that phrase turned out to be prophetic. In 1975, it turned out that the Americans knew of the impending coup. They could have warned their allies, saved the South Vietnamese president and his team, but just as the French did not prevent the genocide in Rwanda, the Americans "found it inexpedient" to stop the military putsch. Some sources claim that the degree of involvement of the Americans was even greater in that they inspired the coup and used the military to remove the president.

But let’s return to the American elections. Here are just a few quotations from comments, statements and interviews by the Russian Foreign Ministry leadership on this subject.

Sergey Lavrov: “This is not the first time that serious international issues that concern many members of the world community are being held hostage to US electoral cycles. However, this is a short-sighted approach.” (September 21, 2018)

Sergey Lavrov: “It is sad when these endless election cycles are starting to make virtually everything else a hostage to the domestic US political struggle. Elections take place every two years, and it is necessary to do something during them, so that the enemy will feel defeated.” (December 22, 2019)

Sergey Lavrov: “When the issue concerns a country that boasts the most powerful military and economy, and is the most influential country in the world, which holds political elections every two years, it very often occurs that the most important international issues become hostage to electoral motives of the existing US authorities, which want to ensure that their every move in the international arena scores big for their party candidates.” (December 30, 2015)

We warned them. It’s just that Mr Nhu refused to realise this or was simply unable to. Reread the first sentence of the post: now it started dawning on him.

7 апреля 2024 года Генеральный консул Российской Федерации в Эдинбурге Д.И.Москаленко почтил память захороненных на кладбище Крейгтон в г.Глазго членов экипажа броненосца "Петр Великий", проходившего в 1881 г. модернизацию в Шотландии, - матроса первой статьи Ф.Лихачева, корабельного священника иеромонаха Сергия и кочегара первой статьи Я.Григорьева. Информация о захоронении была недавно обнаружена благодаря изысканиям участников онлайн-проекта "Русские мемориалы", направленного на поиск и картографирование мемориалов российским и советским воинам за рубежом.

🇷🇺 State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom:

The Zaporozhskaya Nuclear Power Plant has faced an unprecedented series of drone attacks posing a direct threat to the plant’s safety.

The Rosatom State Corporation urges the leadership of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the European Union countries to promptly address the escalating situation at the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.

On April 7, 2024, the Ukrainian Armed Forces initiated an unprecedented series of attacks on the Zaporozhskaya Nuclear Power Plant.

At 11.38 am, a drone struck the vicinity of the canteen, injuring three people.

Thirty minutes later, another drone targeted the cargo port area. Subsequently, a strike at the sixth power unit of the power plant impacted its dome.

No critical damage or casualties occurred; the radiation levels at the plant and its surroundings remain unchanged and do not surpass natural background levels.

Prior to this incident, the Ukrainian Armed Forces conducted an assault on the plant’s premises on April 5. Incursions by Ukrainian Armed Forces drones were detected in the vicinity of the cargo port and the nitrogen-oxygen station.

The Rosatom State Corporation strongly condemns the unprecedented assault on the nuclear power plant facilities and its infrastructure. It urges the leadership of the IAEA, specifically Director General Rafael Grossi, and the leaders of the EU nations to promptly address the immediate threat to the safety of the Zaporozhskaya NPP. Furthermore, it calls for a categorical condemnation of the escalation of tensions surrounding the plant.

On April 7, 2024, Consul General of the Russian Federation in Edinburgh Denis Moskalenko honored the memory of Russian Navy sailors Fedor Likhachev and Yakov Grigoriev as well as Naval chaplain Sergiy buried in the Craigton cemetery in Glasgow. They were crew members of the battleship "Peter the Great" which underwent modernization in Scotland in 1881. Information about the burial was recently discovered thanks to the research of the Russian Memorials online project, aimed at finding and mapping burial places of Russian and Soviet soldiers abroad.

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview on the occasion of Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko’s birthday (Moscow, April 7, 2024)

❓ Question: What is Valentina Matvienko like? If you were to describe her, which qualities would you highlight?

💬 Sergey Lavrov: Valentina Matvienko is a prominent public figure. She has come a long way through various levels of power in the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation.

<...>

I am pleased to express hope that Ms Matvienko is also using her extensive diplomatic experience in her work. Before joining the Government led by Prime Minister Primakov, she served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to Malta and Greece. She showed herself as a tough negotiator who, at the same time, understands the need to find a balance of interests. We do not impose our interests on the rest of the world. Others have taken this niche, but this time will go away soon.

With this kind of experience under the belt, in addition to addressing important tasks related to developing the state and improving living standards in the country, Ms Matvienko pays much attention to foreign policy issues.

Parliamentary diplomacy is making strides. The International Parliamentary Conference, Russia - Latin America, was held in the autumn of 2023. There are parliamentary dimensions to Russia-Africa cooperation, as well as #BRICS, #SCO, #CIS, and #CSTO. There remains much to be done.

☝️ Our parliamentarians are effectively exploring this area and contributing to the common efforts to fulfil the foreign policy goals set by President Vladimir Putin, which were updated on March 31, 2023 in the wake of the latest international developments and included in the new edition of Russia’s Foreign Policy Concept.

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⚡️ Comment by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on US statements regarding the space agenda

💬 On April 5, US Assistant Secretary of Defence for Space Policy John Plumb addressed the Defense Writers Group on the Russian-Chinese draft Treaty on the Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space, the Threat or Use of Force against Outer Space Objects (PPWT). It will be recalled that Russia and China submitted the draft treaty to the Conference on Disarmament in February 2008. Mr Plumb dismissed this initiative as a mere “political ploy,” claiming that adherence to the deal would not be verifiable.

☝️ The US is an ardent opponent of the Russian initiatives on the prevention of an arms race in space (PARS). Its strong opposition to the above Russian-Chinese draft treaty has long been an integral part of US foreign policy. In this context, Mr Plumb’s statements are hardly surprising.

Generally, comments on PARS by US representatives, as well as Washington’s ongoing activities at the UN Security Council with regard to nuclear weapons in space, are elements of its long-standing policy to subvert multilateral efforts to maintain international peace and strengthen global security through upgrading the existing and developing new legally binding arms control instruments. Instead, the US has been promoting a set of norms of “responsible” behaviour within the framework of their concept of a “rules-based world order,” which is untenable both in technical and international legal terms.

🇷🇺 The Russian Federation is prepared for an equitable dialogue with all states, aimed at keeping outer space free of weapons of any type as one of the conditions for ensuring international peace and security. As is to be regretted, far from all countries are committed to a responsible discussion on this matter.