🎙 Briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (Moscow, October 10, 2023)

🔹 FM Sergey Lavrov’s schedule
🔹 Palestinian-Israeli conflict
🔹 Ukrainian crisis
🔹 Investigation into the terrorist attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines
🔹 Upcoming general local elections in Moldova
🔹 Nuremberg Trials
🔹 Illegitimate unilateral sanctions imposed by Washington
🔹 Reform of the WTO

and much more...

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#MiddleEast

💬 We are extremely concerned about the developments in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone.

The top priority now is a ceasefire and stopping the bloodshed. We support the efforts of all stakeholders to address this critical issue. This would make it possible to avoid new casualties, end the suffering of the civilian population, ensure their evacuation through humanitarian corridors and prevent the situation from sliding into a region-wide humanitarian disaster.

#Ukraine

💬 Against the backdrop of the Middle East events, US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene suggested that some of the NATO-supplied weapons imported to Ukraine could have been used in the hostilities in Israel.

It is gratifying that the West, albeit fatally late, is beginning to see the light. Some are beginning to realise what is happening, even if only a few people. Russia has long warned the sponsors of the Kiev regime about the high risks of their weapons ending up on the black market and spreading around the world. And that's exactly what has happened.

#RussiaChina

💬 Russia and China speak out against illegitimate unilateral sanctions imposed by Washington and its satellites. We consider them merely a manifestation of their impotent rage against the emerging new democratic multipolar international order.

Moscow and Beijing are interested in developing international trade and economic ties based on mutual benefits and honest competition. We condemn the attempts to achieve one’s own economic prosperity at the expense of others, because it is nothing but colonialism.

🇷🇺🇮🇱📞 President of Russia Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with Prime Minister of the State of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu.

The focus was on the crisis situation caused by the dramatic escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The President of Russia expressed his sincere condolences to the families and friends of the Israeli victims and stressed his total rejection and condemnation of any actions that result in civilian casualties, including among women and children.

Vladimir Putin laid out the steps being taken by Russia to help normalise the situation, to prevent the further escalation of violence and to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip. In particular, the Israeli side was informed of the key points of today's telephone calls with the leaders of Palestine, Egypt, Iran and Syria.

☝️ Russia’s principled commitment to continue its work to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and achieve a peaceful settlement through political and diplomatic means was reaffirmed.

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

🎙 Explanation of vote by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia before UNSC vote on a draft resolution on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question (October 16, 2023)

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💬 From the very start, Russia has been calling on the Security Council to react to an unprecedented exacerbation of the current crisis. Unfortunately, for 5 days, there have been no progress at this track.

In view of the fact that the number of those killed and injured is multiplying by the hour, we could not wait any longer watching precious time being wasted on either repetitive discussions or idleness on the part of the Council. On October 13, we proposed that the Council should consider our brief and purely humanitarian draft resolution.

❗️ Its main element is the call to an immediate, lasting, and effective ceasefire. No humanitarian efforts are possible unless there is a ceasefire. Our draft resolution provides for condemnation of all violence and all terrorist attacks, opening of humanitarian corridors, and safe release of all hostages.

🎙 Explanation of vote by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia after UNSC vote (October 16, 2023)

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💬 We regret that the Security Council once again was taken hostage by the egoistic ambitions of the Western bloc. This is the only reason why the Council was not able to send a clear, strong collective signal aimed at a de-escalation.

This vote of Security Council members is very telling. It clearly showed who really stands for an immediate ceasefire, putting an end to indiscriminate bombings of Gaza, and ensuring unconditional humanitarian assistance for the residents of this enclave, and who persists in preventing this Council from sending a strong message for egoistic political purposes.

☝️ Regardless of the results of the vote on our draft, it has achieved its goal anyway, for it has given an impetus to a targeted discussion as to how the Security Council should react.

President Vladimir Putin arrives at the Third #BeltandRoad Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing, takes part in the welcome & family photo ceremonies.

🇷🇺🇨🇳 🤝 President Xi Jinping greeted President Vladimir Putin on his arrival, the two Leaders had a brief conversation.

❗️ On October 16, the United Nations Security Council voted on a draft resolution proposed by Russia calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, primarily in the Gaza Strip.

The document set forth several urgent measures to:

• stop violence and civilian suffering,
• free hostages,
• avert a humanitarian disaster looming over the enclave,
• prevent the hostilities from spilling over to other countries in the region.

Considering the extreme tension, the Security Council had to act in all urgency. It is for this reason that the draft resolution as put forward by Russia did not contain any political aspects or assessments, and steered clear of mentioning any parties to the conflict which could have hindered its approval. Almost 30 countries co-sponsored the Russian initiative, including 17 Arab states.

⛔️ Nevertheless, the draft resolution was not adopted. The Western troika – the US, Great Britain and France, as well as Japan, voted against it. Albania, Brazil, Ecuador, Ghana, Malta, and Switzerland abstained.

Therefore, the UN Security Council, the primary body for maintaining global peace and security, failed to adopt a decision which would have helped stop the bloodshed, ease the horrendous humanitarian consequences and create prerequisites for overcoming the ongoing unprecedented crisis. This happened in plain view of the participants in that meeting, as well as the international community as a whole. The Council failed to send a clear, strong and collective message calling for an immediate, lasting and effective humanitarian ceasefire. <…>

👉 Yesterday’s vote demonstrated that it is the position adopted by Washington and other Western capitals that stood in the way of adopting a decision that would have been natural and logical. In the current situation, it was an absolute humanitarian imperative and a moral duty for all responsible members of the international community to adopt this decision.

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⚡️ Russia's Foreign Ministry statement on the tragedy in Gaza

On the evening of October 17, the al-Ahli Hospital in the centre of Gaza was destroyed in a missile attack. According to the Health Ministry of Palestine, at least 500 people have been killed and over 1,000 have been wounded. The overwhelming majority of the victims were hospital patients and civilians, many of them women and children, who were sheltering in the building.

❗️ Moscow is deeply shocked. We express our deep condolences to the families of the victims and the people and government of Palestine.

We again urge the conflicting sides to de-escalate hostilities without delay and to respect international humanitarian law. We reaffirm Russia’s position of principle on the unacceptability of violence against civilians and strikes on medical facilities or any other civilian infrastructure facilities.

👉 We emphasise that it is necessary to consolidate international efforts towards an immediate ceasefire and to open humanitarian corridors in order to give badly needed support to people in Gaza, including deliveries of food, medicines and fuel, to evacuate everyone who wants to leave, and to prevent the looming humanitarian disaster.

We point out that attempts to politicise this issue are unacceptable and irresponsible. We believe that the discussion of the relevant initiatives at the UN Security Council must above all take into account the interests of the people affected by the conflict.

⚠️ We would like to repeat our advice for Russian citizens to refrain from travelling to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

⚡️ As reported earlier, prior to the conclusion of the 104th session of the OPCW Executive Council session on October 13, 2023, the Russian delegation circulated a response note among the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in reference to the most recent anti-Russian demarche by Germany on behalf of Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the US.

Key talking points:

• The false allegations against the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation regarding alleged plans to use chemical warfare agents or toxic chemicals for the purposes that are prohibited by the CWC, including under a false flag, in the area of the special military operation, have absolutely no basis.

• Russia has repeatedly brought to the attention of the Technical Secretariat, the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, as well as the UN Security Council and General Assembly information regarding the preparation and execution of provocations by the Kiev regime involving the use of toxic chemicals and their actual use by Ukrainian paramilitary formations against Russian military in violation of Kiev's commitments under the CWC.

• Materials were delivered personally to the Director-General of the Technical Secretariat, Mr Fernando Arias. These materials are based on an analysis of samples collected amid active fighting outside the town of Rabotino, Zaporozhye Region of the Russian Federation. These samples were obtained from at least two locations where Ukrainian militants and foreign mercenaries violated the CWC by using toxic chemicals.

• The need is overdue to counterbalance with common sense the relentless ambitions of the collective West to turn the OPCW, along with other specialised multilateral entities, into a tool for preserving and consolidating its dominance in global politics.

❗️ In response to the most recent request from Germany, we emphasise once again that Russian forces do not use chemical means to combat disorderly behaviour as part of the special military operation.

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⚡️ Address by the State Duma to the UN and the parliaments of foreign states over the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict

💬 Deputies of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation appeal to the United Nations Organisation and the parliaments of foreign states to take every measure possible as a matter of urgency to stop the bloodshed and the escalation of violence against civilians in the course of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and to prevent an unprecedented humanitarian disaster in the Middle East.

We strongly condemn all and any violations of the international humanitarian law by the conflicting sides, such as the use of munitions that have been prohibited under international treaties, carpet bombing, strikes at civilian infrastructure, first of all, medical facilities, energy and water supply systems, and the coercive relocation of local residents.

Those guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity must be called to account and severely punished.

☝️ We regard the policy of the US-led collective West as immoral and irresponsible; their current actions are hindering the settlement of the Middle East conflict and are instead adding fuel to conflagration in that long-suffering region.

❗️Nothing can camouflage the failure of Washington’s Middle East policy.

State Duma deputies call on members of parliament in all countries to do everything in their power to put an end to hostilities in the conflict zone, organise humanitarian corridors and provide the necessary assistance to the injured and the victims’ families.

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⚡️Hvordan Vesten bragte krigen til Ukraine Af Benjamin Abelow udgivet af Hovedland

📖 Er noscriptn på den amerikanske forfatter, foredragsholder og lobbyist Benjamin Abelows lille, koncentrerede bog om baggrunden for krigen i Ukraine. Bogen er blevet stærkt rost af så forskellige røster som Noam Chomsky, John Mearsheimer og oberst Douglas Macgregor.

☝️I betragtning af at vi siges at leve i et demokrati, er det overordnet set besynderligt, at ingen politikere, ingen medlemmer af regeringen, ingen medlemmer af den 4. Statsmagt, pressen har afvigende meninger om krigen og i særdeleshed, hvem der har ansvaret for krigen. Den helt overvejende vurdering og hvem der bærer ansvaret for krigen, er induceret af vores øverste NATO-partner, USA. Ingen, bortset fra én tidligere politiker, Marie Krarup, har vovet at give udtryk for afvigende meninger...

Pens. oberststløjtnant af Hæren Jens Kristian Bech Pedersen har oversat bogen, og Marie Krarup, har skrevet et dansk forord til bogen, hvori hun bl.a. skriver: ”Forfatterens skræmmende rigtige tese er, at Vesten har misforstået, hvorfor Rusland invaderede Ukraine. Hvilket betyder, at Vesten træffer vigtige afgørelser på falske præmisser.”

👇EXPERTS ENDORSEMENTS:

💬“Very well-done…. Reviews material that should be much better known.” — Noam Chomsky, a professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona and an institute professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

💬“A brilliant, remarkably concise explanation…. Needs to be read and pondered by every citizen capable of thinking rationally and responsibly about American and European security.” — Jack F. Matlock, Jr., U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union, 1987-1991.

💬“For anyone interested in understanding the true causes of the disaster in Ukraine, How the West Brought War to Ukraine is required reading.” — John J.Mearsheimer, the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago.

🎙 News conference by Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova (October 16, 2023)

Key talking points:

💬 We are working on establishing in new regions a system of protecting children. Within the project To the Hands of Children we have organized 27 humanitarian convoys. Targeted assistance was provided to ~13,000 people.

New regions are continuing to suffer from military aggression from Ukraine. Children get killed and injured. We help in organizing emergency medical assistance and rehabilitation of children. We bring them to federal clinics and buy the necessary equipment.

We have been reuniting families since the beginning of the special military operation in a consistent and open way. 35 children from 24 families have reunited with their families living in Ukraine and other countries.

The Committee of the Red Cross provides significant aid to us, as its representatives accompany the families on the territory of Russia and Belarus. Strangely enough, Ukraine itself and the ICRC representatives in Kyiv are extremely reluctant to work in this area.

❗️We see the politicizing of the situation by Ukraine, so-called information bubble around our activities. <...> You can read our bulletin on our website & in social networks. It is a source of truth.

Despite the unprecedented sanctions, pressure and disinformation around Russia our international agenda has expanded last year.

Yesterday, a flight landed, which brought 34 children back to Russia from Syria. Since 2018, Russia has managed to bring 513 children back from armed conflicts zones in Syria and Iraq. <...> We have been carrying out charity projects in Africa, primarily in health care and education.

It does not have nationalities, regardless whether the children are Abkhazian, African, Russian, Ukrainian, Syrian. These children need safety, care, warmth, and family environment. We see our mission there.

🎙 Выступление Специального представителя Президента Российской Федерации по Ближнему Востоку и странам Африки, заместителя Министра иностранных дел М.Л.Богданова на Каирском саммите мира, 21 октября 2023

💬 Руководство Российской Федерации высоко оценивает инициативу Президента Арабской Республики Египет А.Сиси по созыву в Каире саммита мира.

• Беспрецедентная по своим масштабам вспышка насилия в зоне палестино-израильского конфликта вызывает катастрофический рост числа жертв среди гражданского населения с обеих сторон.

• Российская дипломатия предпринимает интенсивные усилия по деэскалации обстановки. До всех вовлеченных сторон нами доведен однозначный сигнал: нужно безотлагательно прекратить огонь и обеспечить гуманитарные коридоры с целью срочного оказания помощи всем нуждающимся.

• В Совете Безопасности ООН нами был инициирован проект резолюции с требованиями реализации неотложных мер, призванных остановить насилие. К сожалению, из-за негативной позиции США Совет Безопасности ООН не смог реализовать своё главное уставное предназначение – поддержать международный мир и безопасность.

• Наряду с решением не терпящих промедления задач по прекращению нынешнего витка насилия необходимо безотлагательно приступить к согласованию стратегии коллективных действий по политическому урегулированию конфликта, задачей продвижения которого занимался в прошлом «квартет» международных посредников в составе России, США, ЕС и ООН.

• На повестке дня – формирование коллективного посреднического механизма с активной ролью региональных государств.

• В пользу этого говорят те позитивные тенденции, которые в последнее время наметились в развитии ближневосточной ситуации: саудовско-иранская нормализация, реинтеграция Сирии в Лигу арабских государств, постепенное оздоровление межгосударственных отношений между Сирией и Турцией.

☝️ Когда страны региона берут ситуацию в свои руки и не подвергаются внешнему давлению, они многого добиваются на пути стабилизации Ближнего Востока.

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The Ministry of Foreign Affaris of the Russian Federation

🎙 Speech by the Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for the Middle East and Africa, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs M.L. Bogdanov at the Cairo Peace Summit, 21 October 2023

💬 The leadership of the Russian Federation highly appreciates the initiative of the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt A. Sisi to convene the Cairo Peace Summit.

- The unprecedented outbreak of violence in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone is causing a catastrophic increase in the number of civilian casualties on both sides.

- Russian diplomacy is making intensive efforts to de-escalate the situation. We have sent an unequivocal message to all parties involved: there must be an immediate ceasefire and humanitarian corridors must be secured in order to provide urgent assistance to all those in need.

- We have initiated a draft resolution in the UN Security Council demanding the implementation of urgent measures to stop the violence. Unfortunately, due to the negative position of the United States, the UN Security Council was unable to fulfil its main statutory purpose - to maintain international peace and security.

- Along with the solution of the urgent tasks to stop the current acts of violence, it is necessary to urgently start agreeing on a strategy of collective action for a political settlement of the conflict, the task of promoting which has been carried out in the past by the "quartet" of international mediators consisting of Russia, the United States, the EU and the UN.

- The formation of a collective mediation mechanism with an active role for regional States is on the agenda.

- This is supported by the positive trends that have recently emerged in the development of the Middle East situation: the Saudi-Iranian normalisation, the reintegration of Syria into the Arab League, and the gradual improvement in inter-State relations between Syria and Turkey.

☝️ When the countries of the region take the situation into their own hands and are not subjected to external pressure, they achieve a lot on the way to stabilising the Middle East.

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