🎙 Address by Russia's President Vladimir Putin on the start of Russia's BRICS Chairmanship

💬 On January 1, Russia was passed the baton of the #BRICS chairmanship, an association which, according to the decision adopted by the 15th BRICS Summit in August 2022, now includes 10 countries.

Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates joined BRICS as new full members which is a strong indication of the growing authority of the association and its role in international affairs.

BRICS is attracting an ever increasing number of supporters and like-minded countries that share its underlying principles, namely, sovereign equality, respect for the chosen path of development, mutual consideration of interests, openness, consensus, the aspiration to form a multipolar international order and a fair global financial and trade system, and pursuit of collective solutions to top challenges of our time.

The Russian 2024 BRICS Chairmanship under the motto Strengthening Multilateralism for Equitable Global Development and Security will act precisely in this manner and focus on positive and constructive cooperation with all countries concerned.

🔸 We will spare no effort to <...> facilitate the harmonious integration of new participants in all formats of its activities.

🔸 We will start working on the modalities of a new category of BRICS partner country.

🔸 Russia will continue to promote all aspects of the BRICS partnership in three key areas: politics and security, economy and finance, and cultural and humanitarian contacts.

🔸 Our priorities include promoting cooperation in science, high technology, healthcare, environmental protection, culture, sports, youth exchanges, and civil society.

🔸 In total, over 200 events of different levels and types will be held in many Russian cities as part of the chairmanship.

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🇷🇺 Russia assumes CIS chairmanship on January 1, 2024

The Concept for Russia’s chairmanship of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in 2024 has been published.

Russia will chair the Commonwealth of Independent States under the Concept of the Further Development of the CIS, endorsed by a CIS Heads of State Council resolution on December 18, 2020; the Economic Development Strategy of the CIS for the Period up to 2030 adopted by a resolution of the CIS Heads of Government on May 29, 2020, and other CIS fundamental programme documents.

Russia’s chairmanship of the CIS will be aimed at ensuring the continuity of its activities and reaching a number of goals, in part,

👉 to continue strengthening the CIS as an integration association;
👉 increase its international status;
👉 enhancing the CIS’s role as a representative venue for multilateral political dialogue on a broad range of issues;
👉 deepening its economic integration with a view to creating a common economic space;
👉 upgrading the mechanisms for countering, through cooperation, traditional and new challenges and threats to the security of the CIS member-states;
👉 promoting cooperation in the military area and on border security; expanding cultural and humanitarian interaction;
👉 aligning CIS activities with other integration associations with a view to creating a Greater Eurasian Partnership that unites the potential of all states and organisations of the region; and improving the CIS’s contractual and legal foundation and cooperation institutions.

An meaningful part of Russia’s chairmanship will be a support for measures to counter the falsification of history and attempts to rehabilitate Nazism, and to preserve the historical memory of the Great Patriotic War, including the genocide of the Soviet peoples.

In this context, special attention will be paid to preparations for holding the Year of the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War in the CIS in 2025 – the Year of Peace and Unity in the Fight against Nazism.

💬 Μαρία Ζαχάροβα, η Εκπρόσωπος του Υπουργείου Εξωτερικών της Ρωσίας:

Με φόντο τη βαρβαρότητα του ναζιστικού καθεστώτος του Κιέβου, το Ευρωπαϊκό Συμβούλιο στη σύνοδό του στις 14-15 Δεκεμβρίου τ.ε. αποφάσισε να ξεκινήσει τις διαπραγματεύσεις για την ένταξη της Ουκρανίας στην Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση. Έτσι, δεν είναι το Κίεβο που ανεβαίνει προς την Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση, αλλά η ΕΕ κατέρχεται στο επίπεδο του ναζιστικού καθεστώτος του Κιέβου.

💬 Σεργκέι Λαβρόβ, ο Υπουργός Εξωτερικών της Ρωσίας:


Οι BRICS δεν είναι οργανισμός, αλλά ένωση. Δεν νομίζω ότι κανείς ενδιαφέρεται να τους μετατρέψει σε έναν πραγματικό οργανισμό με γραμματεία. Οι BRICS είναι ένα σύμβολο, μια επιθυμία της Παγκόσμιας Πλειοψηφίας να αναπτύξουν από κοινού τις πρωτοβουλίες, λαμβάνοντας υπόψη τα συμφέροντα των άλλων σε ισότιμη βάση. Είναι η μελλοντική «ομπρέλα» πάνω από όλες τις υποπεριφερειακές και περιφερειακές διαδικασίες. Αυτή η ένωση ήδη περιλαμβάνει τις χώρες από την Ευρασία, την Αφρική, τη Λατινική Αμερική και τον αραβικό κόσμο.

Αυτό είναι το μέλλον.

❗️Brussels has once again decided to turn a blind eye to the Ukrainian armed forces' terrorist act - the EU pretends that after five days it still does not notice the strike on civilian objects in Belgorod on 30 December 2023. Presenting this as Ukraine's "legitimate right to self-defence", the European Commission's Lead Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Peter Stano responding to the TASS question made it clear that the EU is an accomplice and sponsor of the Kiev regime, which is carrying out targeted terrorist attacks against civilians in Russia.

This reaction only demonstrates the EU's weakness: when there are no counterarguments, its favourite excuse and "answer" to all reasonable questions is to try to put everything down to "Kremlin propaganda and disinformation".

#EUDoubleStandards

💬 Μαρία Ζαχάροβα:

Η αποτυχημένη πολιτική της απερχόμενης ηγεσίας της ΕΕ βύθισε την άλλοτε ειρηνική και επιτυχημένη ένωση στην εξάρτηση από τις ΗΠΑ και την άβυσσο των ευρωπαϊκών συγκρούσεων. Το αμερικανικό στρατιωτικό-βιομηχανικό σύμπλεγμα, το χρηματοπιστωτικό και τραπεζικό σύστημα και άλλες βιομηχανίες επωφελούνται ευχαρίστως από τον μιλιταρισμό της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης και την ανόητη οικονομική και στρατιωτική υποστήριξή της στο ουκρανικό νεοναζιστικό καθεστώς από το 2014.