🌐 On May 18, 1899, the Hague hosted a first ever international peace and disarmament conference. The initiative and idea for the event was that of the then Russian Empire.

The meeting resulted in the signing of 3 conventions:

• Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes
• Convention with respect to the Laws and Customs of War on Land
• Convention for the Adaptation to Maritime Warfare of the Principles of the Geneva Convention of August 22, 1864.

However, Russia's idea on the true reduction of armaments and constraining military budgets failed to be enshrined in the form written guarantees. Issues of vital importance for the whole of Europe were reflected in the conference proceedings only in the form of declarations and “desiderata.” A mere 15 years later, #WWI would begin to re-carve the political map of Europe beyond recognition.

❗️And yet, the conference was not held in vain. It became an important step towards containing a global arms race and laid down the foundation, formed the bedrock of international law.

🇷🇺🇺🇳 Permament Mission of the Russian Federation to the UN:

🎙Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at UNSC briefing on deliveries of weapons and military equipment to Ukraine and their consequences (18 May 2023)

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💬 Western states insist that they do not take part in the conflict, but rather “help Ukraine defend itself”. But in reality, it is the exact opposite. The West is fighting a proxy-war on Russia in Ukraine.

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Deliveries of ever more powerful weapons systems to Kiev, combined with data sharing and the training of Ukrainian soldiers on their territories make these states not only parties to the armed conflict with Russia under the 1907 Hague Conventions on the rights and obligations of neutral powers in naval and land warfare, but also accomplices to the war crimes of the Ukrainian armed forces and nationalist battalions.

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❗️ The goals of the collective West are obvious to all, Western politicians do not conceal them. And this is not the principles of morality and highest humanistic values, far from that. By using Ukraine as a testing site, they want to drag out this conflict, “until the last Ukrainian”, hoping to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia. This is based on an obvious desire to impose their will and their so-called rules on everyone.

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Attacks of the Kiev regime against civilian infrastructure and peaceful population of the Donbas happen daily.

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☝️ The West knew exactly who they were bringing to power after the coup d'état in 2014 and who they had carefully nurtured before that in the interests of transforming Ukraine into an "anti-Russia”. <...> Western countries not only failed to prevent it, but as their leaders admit today, they sabotaged the implementation of the Minsk Agreements in order to keep using the Kiev authorities in their own interests.

❗️ On renewing the Black Sea Initiative

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• In connection with expiration of the 60-day deadline for renewing the Black Sea Initiative to export Ukrainian grain on May 18 and in response to requests primarily from our Turkish partners as a party to the agreement, we confirmed the renewal of the agreement for another two months through July 17 without any changes.

• Our principled assessments of the implementation of the interrelated Istanbul agreements have remain unchanged, and so far only the Black Sea Initiative has been implemented with the exception of ammonia exports.

• There’s no measurable progress under the Russia-UN Memorandum.

• There are obvious issues with the declared humanitarian component of the deal where Ukrainian grain is being exported through this sea corridor mostly to high and above-average income countries, including “well-stocked” European markets.

• Countries that need it most have received hardly anything, 722,000 tonnes (or 2.5 percent) of the total amount of 30 million tonnes that had been moved from Ukrainian ports over nine months.

• The export of Russian products, even donations of fertilisers to the neediest countries, continues to be blocked by various aspects of the illegal and unilateral sanctions.

• There is no progress either in resuming ammonia shipments mentioned in both Istanbul documents.

• Given the circumstances, we are compelled to issue a reminder that there are five systemically important issues that must be resolved as part of implementing the Russia-UN Memorandum and which have seen no progress whatsoever so far:
- reconnecting Rosselkhozbank to the SWIFT system
- supplying spare parts
- unblocking transport logistics and insurance
- reestablishing the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline
- unfreezing the Russian companies’ assets

• There can be no talk of expanding the Black Sea Initiative in principle without these requirements first being met. The agreement will be terminated after July 17.

🇷🇺🇦🇿 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks at talks with Foreign Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov

📍 Moscow, May 19, 2023

💬 Sergey Lavrov: We are delighted to meet with you again. Today we will hold a trilateral meeting with our Armenian colleague, which was scheduled to take place in late 2022.

Your visit to Moscow is a good opportunity to review our bilateral relations, especially in light of the upcoming contacts between the leaders of Russia and Azerbaijan.

I would like to reaffirm our resolve to implement the agreements reached by President Vladimir Putin and President Ilham Aliyev.

🤝 The North-South international transport corridor is an interesting recent project. Our leaders discussed it at the bilateral level and jointly with many other interested countries. We hope that further work on this project and in other areas will be coordinated at the next meeting.

I would like to note that the main events for the 100th birth anniversary of Heydar Aliyev, an outstanding statesman of the Soviet Union and Azerbaijan, began in Moscow on May 15, 2023. He was a unifying figure for our countries. We are grateful for your embassy’s close cooperation in organising these events.

📈 Our trade is growing, our investments are yielding results, and our companies have forward-looking plans. We will exchange views on all these issues. We will talk about the best way to prepare for a trilateral meeting with our Armenian colleague, which is scheduled for this afternoon.

#RussiaAzerbaijan

#Reminder for Global Affairs Canada

After the people of Crimea unanimously decided to reunite with 🇷🇺Russia, Crimean Tatars were among the top beneficiaries gaining full spectre of rights and freedoms, including language, religion and traditions-related - all that the Kiev regime had deprived them of for decades.

💬Russia's Secretary of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev:

The terrorist acts committed in Russia, including the murder of [journalist and philosopher] Daria Dugina, [journalist] Vladlen Tatarsky, the explosion of [writer and politician] Zakhar Prilepin's car, the explosion of the Crimean bridge, as well as the explosion of the Nord Stream gas pipeline and others, were planned and carried out under the coordination of US intelligence agencies.

The terrorist attacks carried out in Russia have been accompanied by an information campaign prepared in advance in Washington and London.

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks during talks with Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov and Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan

📍 Moscow, May 19, 2023

💬 I'm delighted to have both of you here. Thank you for coming to Moscow.

You and I just had separate bilateral meetings. They were quite productive and useful both in terms of promoting bilateral interaction with each friendly country and us gearing up for another round of trilateral consultations to exchange views on ways to normalise relations between Baku and Yerevan, as well as the steps that the Russian Federation can take in this area in order to facilitate the implementation in full of the tripartite statements (1, 2, 3, 4 ) signed over the past three years by the presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia and the Prime Minister of Armenia.

The last time we met was quite a while ago. Many new issues have come up. I hope today's meeting will be held in a constructive atmosphere, and your face-to-face dialogue will help break new ground.

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The tripartite statements signed by our leaders provide, in effect, a roadmap for arriving at sustainable solutions. With the situation surrounding the South Caucasus in mind, we believe there is no alternative to the agreements that our leaders have achieved.

In turn, we are fully interested in seeing peace and stability in this region.

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I expect other countries which, one way or another, have a stake in having a presence in this region to respect them.

❗️ On a separate note, concurrently with the efforts to stabilise the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and on the border, it is imperative to overcome humanitarian challenges, unblock economic transport links and agree on the language of a peace treaty, which you are working on.

⚡️ Russia's Defence Ministry:

As a result of offensive actions by the Wagner assault units, supported by artillery and aviation of the Yug Group of Forces, the liberation of #Artyomovsk has been completed.

🎙 Excerpts from President Vladimir Putin's remarks at the meeting of the Council for Interethnic Relations:

💬 We are aware of the aggressive external pressure being put on Russia and our society. We have to deal with nearly all instruments in the enemies’ arsenals, including economic, military, political and information tools, as well as formidable anti-Russia propaganda.

The attacks on our history, culture and spiritual values never ease up, just as the attempts to undermine the unity and fraternal relations among our peoples.

Our adversaries have decided that Russia’s multi-ethnicity is a tender spot, and they are making every effort to divide us.

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❗️ The people behind these kinds of concepts are accustomed to following Western ideological blueprints steeped in racist neo-colonial approaches and assertions of some kind of exceptionalism of some nations and inferiority of the others and the habitual division of nations into the first, second and third grades.

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Our state was built around values of multiethnic harmony. This is the bedrock foundation underlying our consolidation, which is only getting stronger in the face of external aggressions and threats. Our adversaries, that I mentioned earlier, people with neo-colonial mindsets – halfwits, in fact – are unable to realise that diversity makes us stronger.

☝️ The stronger the sanctions, the nastier the slander, the higher this manifestation of general consolidation.

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🇨🇦🇫🇷🇩🇪🇮🇹🇯🇵🇬🇧🇺🇸 The summit of the so-called Group of Seven aka the #G7 ended in Hiroshima, Japan. Its main result is a set of statements saturated with questionable passages of an anti-Russia and anti-China nature.

Thus, the G7 summit has once again produced politicised decisions aimed at drawing diving lines in international relations.

The Group of Seven used to be an association whose members coordinated their positions on various issues on the global agenda. However, it has now irreversibly deteriorated, becoming an “incubator” which, under Anglo-Saxon leadership, hatches destructive initiatives and subverts global stability. The initiatives are subsequently imposed on pro-US minions made up of NATO, the EU and other satellites of Washington.

The implausibility of G7 nations’ claims to be the global guarantor of financial and economic stability became conclusively evident to everyone during the 2008-2009 crisis. The international events of the past few years indicate that G7 is unable to offer anything productive in either politics or diplomacy.

❗️ Panic over the objective process of the emergence of multipolarity and the destruction of the US-centred hegemony that used to allow the West to plunder the world, makes the Group’s members put every effort into fanning Russophobic and Sinophobic hysteria.

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Against such an unattractive backdrop, the G7 countries are not shy about flirting with non-Western states so as to bring them to their side and not allow them to develop ties with Russia and China. At the same time, it is obvious that the G7 is the main factor in exacerbating global problems. It cannot reflect the interests of other centres of development, especially those of the Asia-Pacific region, South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.

☝️ We believe that our assessments of the G7 and its destructive actions are shared by the majority of the world community.

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#Opinion by Maria Zakharova

💬 Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Arkadiusz Mularczyk: “Poland has begun to calculate the damage caused by the actions of the USSR during and after World War II.”

I propose to demand half of Poland for Ivan Susanin alone. And I remind the uneducated about the contribution of the USSR in the liberation of Warsaw from the Nazis and the restoration of the Polish state after World War II.

🏆Национальный открытый чемпионат творческих компетенций Artmasters-2023

К участию приглашаются граждане Российской Федерации и граждане иностранных государств со знанием русского языка.

📅Прием заявок - до 28 мая 2023 г.

Подробности на сайте artmasters.ru

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at the 31st Assembly of the Council on Foreign and Defence Policy (Moscow, May 20, 2023)

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Key points:

• The Western “track” in our foreign policy as it was developed until recently is no longer viable.

• We are now at the point of fierce confrontation with an aggressive bloc composed of the United States, the EU, and NATO, which has stated loudly and openly that its goal is to “defeat Russia on the battlefield.”

• The Western expert community is openly discussing an “order” for Russian partition scenarios they have received. It is not being hidden that Russia’s existence as an independent centre is incompatible with the goal of attaining the West’s global domination.

• If we take the global trends, the developments around Ukraine are accelerating the transition to a multipolar system of international relations.

• Washington made use of the Ukraine crisis to consolidate its camp. We see this. But this is more reminiscent of total submission to a centre that dictates its will. But consolidation has taken place despite this. Simultaneously, however, a fault line has emerged between the collective West and the global majority, the countries of the Global South and East.

• The EU, to our immense regret, had lost its independence and become fully dependent on the United States.

• The current era is one of transition to multipolarity, where nations refuse to obey the hegemon. This historical era may be of a long duration. We have many allies in this work and struggle. All of you see and describe our relations with the People’s Republic of China, India, the ASEAN countries, the Gulf states, Iran, Türkiye, the African Union, and the resuscitated Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. This one is getting a second wind after the elections in Brazil. There are many other countries and associations. In the post-Soviet space, these include the CIS, CSTO, and EAEU.

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks during talks with Foreign Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan Bakhtiyor Saidov (Moscow, May 22, 2023)

💬 As for our bilateral relations, we are pleased to state, as our Presidents have done, that ties are developing intensively in all directions, despite the sanctions restrictions. In 2022, trade grew by 26 percent, approaching $9 billion.

☝️ Among the priorities is cooperation in education and science. Today, about 12,000 citizens of Uzbekistan study in Russian universities free of charge at the expense of federal and regional budgets. For the next academic year, 800 quota places are allocated for Uzbek students. We appreciate the attention paid to the Russian language and education in Uzbekistan.

🤝 Speaking of regional issues, we closely cooperate in the #CIS and #SCO, and develop ties with the Eurasian Economic Union, where Uzbekistan participates as an observer.

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🎙 Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov’s answers to media questions regarding statements issued following G7 meetings

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❓ Question: A document approved following the recent G7 meetings claims that unlike other nuclear powers (that is, Russia and China), the United States, the UK, and France display a responsible and transparent approach in the nuclear sphere, providing “data on their nuclear forces and the objective size of their nuclear arsenal.” What is your comment?

💬 Sergey Ryabkov: These statements are wide of the mark. They reflect the general anti-Russia and anti-China sentiment that became one of the main themes of the summit held by the so-called Group of Seven.

Russia is invariably responsible in nuclear affairs and displays all possible “transparency” within the limits determined by the considerations for political and military expediency. Over the past decade, Russia has markedly raised the level of transparency with regard to its doctrinal precepts in the nuclear sphere and the modernisation programmes embracing its nuclear deterrent. The Russian military regularly informs the public at home and the international community about the specific weapons systems guarding Russia’s sovereignty and ensuring its security, as well as about the essence and purpose of relevant exercises and drills.

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The data on US strategic offensive arms, which the US Department of State published not long ago, are delusive in their non-conformity with the New START counting rules that Washington stubbornly attempts to circumvent by using underhanded manipulation. As a result, they leave out considerable capabilities – more than 100 units of strategic offensive arms – which should fall within the purview of the treaty, whose fate US officials ostensibly hold so close to their heart.

As for data on the size of the UK and French arsenals, they are totally unverifiable and declarative. You can publish whatever you want.

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We note that the G7’s appeal for resuming the New START and for other steps in the nuclear sphere does not evince even the slightest willingness for NATO’s combined capabilities being taken into account in this context.

❓ Question: The G7 summit’s final communique says that the parties remain committed to the “universalisation, effective implementation, and strengthening of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.” How does this relate to the United States deploying its biological laboratories all over the world, including in the post-Soviet space?

💬 Sergey Ryabkov: The entire international community should focus on the uncontrolled and extremely dangerous military biological activities that the United States and its allies pursue outside their national territory. We regard these Western activities, including in the post-Soviet space, as a real threat to the national security of the Russian Federation and other states, primarily those where these activities are taking place.

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A clear example of these US activities is the recently revealed facts of the Pentagon and its affiliated entities, including the private companies, implementing military biological programmes in Ukraine in violation of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC). An analysis of the programmes that were being carried out at Ukrainian laboratories allows us to conclude that they were developing components of biological weapons in the direct vicinity of Russian territory.

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The best confirmation of the Western countries’ commitment to consolidating the BWC regime would be some real steps to cut short the world-wide destructive military biological activity in combination with creating specific tools for BWC implementation, rather than the inflated and empty statements adopted in the wake of the G7 summit.

🎙 Video address of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin to the participants of the 11th International meeting of high representatives in charge of security issues.

💬 Over years, your regular communication and exchange of experience and assessments have proved their importance and helped resolve key issues of ensuring global and regional security and strategic stability.

Your agenda today is also quite packed and important. First, you will discuss the international situation at hand and its prospects, analyse major modern threats, including international terrorism, extremism, arms and drug trafficking, transnational crime and illegal migration and, of course, food and cyber security matters.

❗️ Clearly, the international situation can be described in terms of mounting instability. Different regions see old hotbeds of tension expand and new ones emerge, the negative burden of conflicts is piling up, and people in many countries are experiencing the dramatic aftermath of the foreign-engineered coups.

This state of affairs directly stems from the desire of individual states and associations to preserve their dominance and impose their rules as they continue to act in complete disregard of other countries’ sovereignty, national interests and traditions.

🤝 We highly appreciate the fact that Russia has many partners in different regions and on different continents and the historically strong, friendly, and trust-based ties with the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America and we will work to fortify them in every way we can.

I am sure that acting together we will build a more just multipolar world, and the exceptionalism-driven ideology, as well as the neo-colonial system that made it possible to exploit the resources of the whole world, will inevitably become a thing of the past.

I hope you will have a constructive and productive meeting, and outline new forms and areas of practical cooperation for the good of our countries and peoples in the interests of peace and stability on the planet

🌍 On May 25, the world celebrates #AfricaDay.

On this day in 1963, exactly 60 years ago, African governments convened in Addis Ababa for the first conference which laid the foundation for the creation of the Organisation of African Unity.

🇷🇺 Russia and Africa are united by traditional bonds of friendship, and it is symbolic that this anniversary year we are holding the second #RussiaAfrica Summit.

🤝 The Soviet Union supported the African countries in their fight for independence and played an important role in the development of the young countries on the continent. Soviet military advisers worked in Africa and military specialists have served in Angola, Ethiopia, Egypt, Mozambique and other African countries at various times.

🤝 Under pressure from the Soviet Union, the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples was adopted, which declared the need to end colonialism and any other form of discrimination.

❌ The Western powers are not just continuing to exploit the African nations, pumping out resources while counting corporate profits, but they have also been cleaning up their own ugly past.

The falsification of history is also about the cynical unpublished campaign to hush up the horrors of the colonial era. The West is trying to pretend that the suffering that many generations of Africans have gone through, as well as racism, the slave trade, murders and punitive operations, had nothing to do with them

A quickly made-up story about “events” aimed to highlight white people of the West’s concern for people of colour has been planted, but in fact, this is nothing more than a flashmob with no deep realisation of the harm. On the contrary, the ideology of a “beautiful garden” and a “wild jungle” is being promoted.

There is the pretence that everything that took place back then, in the colonial era, seemed to have happened and at the same time not to have happened at all.

☝️ Yet Africa remembers.

#AfricaDay

#AfricaDay

🥳 Russian Embassies across the African continent join the celebrations on Africa Day!

Russian Ambassadors and diplomats congratulate African partners and friends in Lingale, Zulu, Bambara, Hausa, Baule, Fon, Ronga, Luganda, Oshiwambo, Swahili, Malagasy, Comorian, Creole, Somali, Amharic, Arabic, Portuguese, French and English.

🤝 We cherish our friendly ties, which are rooted in the period of the joint fight against colonialism, when our country supported the African national liberation movements and young African states.

🇷🇺🌍 It is highly symbolic that we are holding the second #RussiaAfrica Summit the same year the 60th anniversary of the Organisation of African Unity is celebrated. The Summit will become the most important foreign policy event in Russian-African relations and will give a palette of areas to cooperate and boost our long-term relations with the African nations.

✍️ President Vladimir Putin sent greetings to African heads of state and government on #AfricaDay.

✉️ This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Organisation of African Unity. For decades, this representative international organisation had played a crucial role in the development of multilateral dialogue and cooperation. Its good traditions are currently carried on by the African Union, within which all states on the continent are actively interacting. Thanks to their joint efforts, it was possible to establish mechanisms of collective response to local crises and launch processes of regional integration in various formats. This, undoubtedly, facilitates the social and economic development of Africa, and increases its role in international affairs.

Russia has always attached special importance to strengthening relations with its African partners. The first #RussiaAfrica Summit, held in 2019, gave a boost to our ties in many areas.

☝️ I am sure that the second Russia-Africa Summit, which will take place in St Petersburg in July, will help us outline new tasks aimed at expanding the constructive cooperation between our country and our African partners in the political, trade and economic, scientific and technological, humanitarian and other areas.

🇷🇺🌍 I will be delighted to welcome African leaders to St Petersburg. I sincerely wish all of you good health and success in your state activities and wish your citizens peace and prosperity.