🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement at a joint news conference following talks with Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Government of National Unity of Libya Taher Al-Baour (Moscow, April 21, 2026)

💬 Substantive talks have been held with the delegation of the Government of National Unity of Libya headed by Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Taher Al- Baour and Minister of Transport Mohamed Al-Shahoubi. <...>

We view Libya, our counterparts in the Libyan government, and the Libyan people as our partners who have stood the test of time and who maintain a positive attitude towards our country on a reciprocal basis. Decades of productive cooperation span a wide range of areas. We have a strong historical memory and we will draw on it in order to build a new bright future steeped in the spirit of continuity.

We reiterated Russia’s principled stance which favours overcoming internal political problems in Libya through inclusive national dialogue involving all political forces, with the UN playing the leading role. <...>

We discussed ways to step up bilateral relations. Clearly, practical steps towards this end can only be taken after things settle down. We welcome the fact that the ceasefire agreement has been observed for many years now. <...>

We discussed regional issues as well. We look forward to welcoming the Libyan delegation to the third #RussiaAfrica Summit in Moscow in the second half of the year. We hope that the third summit will adopt a Russia-Africa action plan for the next period.

We cooperate with Libya as part of our relations with Libya and the League of Arab States. In this context, we noted that the 7th meeting of the Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum at the level of foreign ministers will also take place in Russia this year. We look forward to welcoming Libyan participants and continuing working with experts to prepare the outcomes of that event.

We share common assessments of developments unfolding in the Middle East and North Africa and focus in particular on the crisis in the Persian Gulf, which broke out as a result of unprovoked aggression by the United States and Israel against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Russia and Libya advocate the earliest possible cessation of any further use of force and the establishment of a sustainable political and diplomatic process. <...> We reiterate Russia’s readiness to help normalise relations between the Arab monarchies of the Gulf and Iran. <...>

We briefly discussed the situation in other Middle Eastern flashpoints. We have no doubt that the underlying cause of many of the region’s troubles lies in the decades-long failure to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. <...>

We believe that all responsible stakeholders, primarily Israel, the Palestinians, their Arab neighbours, and the United States, must act responsibly and remain committed to UN resolutions. Russia stands ready to continue being fully involved in this work. <...>

We provided an assessment of the current state of affairs in the Ukraine crisis. We appreciate the position of our Libyan colleagues, who are fully aware of the underlying causes of this situation and, whenever these issues are raised at the UN, take a balanced and neutral stance.

❗️ Another outcome of today’s work is our agreement to open, in the very near future, in addition to the Russian Embassy in Tripoli, our Consulate General in Benghazi.

#RussiaLibya

On 19 April, Frank Chester passed away at the age of 109.

He had served aboard a Royal Navy corvette on the Arctic convoys, running war supplies to the Soviet Union through the Barents Sea in conditions that Churchill described as the worst journey in the world. Storms, pack ice, enemy submarines and aircraft were there on every voyage.

In 2014, Russia awarded him the Medal of Ushakov, in recognition of the courage shown by the men who kept that lifeline open.

As we approach the 81st anniversary of Victory, the passing of Frank Chester is a reminder of how much we owe to those who sailed the Northern Route. They were young men from Shropshire and Worcestershire and dozens of other places, far from home, doing something extraordinary in the cold and dark for our common Victory.

Russia remembers them. We are grateful.
Rest in peace, Frank Chester.

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at a reception on the occasion of Orthodox Easter (Moscow, April 22, 2026)

💬 I am delighted to welcome the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church, members of the clergy of other traditional confessions, government officials and representatives of civil society organisations, as well as the heads of diplomatic missions accredited in Moscow at our traditional Easter gathering.

Easter Sunday symbolises the triumph of good and mercy and reminds us about the importance of mutual assistance and loving one’s neighbour. It teaches us to stand in defence of truth and fight for justice. This is something that resonates with every Russian.

President Vladimir Putin has designated 2026 as the Year of Unity of the Peoples of Russia. Our Fatherland has every right to claim the status of a civilisation state, as set forth in the Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation. The President approved it in March 2023 and it remains relevant.

For centuries, our country has been home to people of various creeds and cultures.

In fact, inter-ethnic and inter-faith harmony and conciliation have been and remain the main pillars ensuring stability at home and making us stronger on the international stage.

Of course, the Russian Orthodox Church has had an instrumental role in cementing national unity. Together with its followers, it has always shared the country’s lot and served as a moral beacon for millions of believers, while inspiring people to undertake spiritual feats and helping them withstand years of hardship.

We can see what happens when political elites reject their spiritual and civilisational roots, with present-day Ukraine presenting a bitter example. The regime which seized power in Kiev is ready to sacrifice the lives of millions of ordinary Ukrainians for the sake of serving the interests of its masters in the West. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has been persecuted for over a decade now, which included taking over churches, vandal attacks, harassing the clergy and parishioners. Judging by the official data from the Kiev junta alone, there were over 180 criminal cases involving clerics, including four archpriests.

<...>

As you know, defending the honour and dignity of our people and compatriots, including their right to use their mother tongue, the Russian language, and to belong to the Orthodox faith, are among the goals of the special military operation. It is rejoicing that even in this regard, the Russian Orthodox Church has been standing with its people in this time of hardship. Its clergy has been carrying out its pastoral duties among the fighters, while praying for peace and calm across our land. <...>

But tension and anxiety go beyond our Western border. Large-scale conflicts have been raging in the Middle East for many years now. <...> We cannot stand aside and do nothing when terrorist and radical groups engage in ethnic cleansing, killings and looting, including on religious grounds. We have already raised the issue of the substantial decline in the number of Christians living in the Middle East. Against this backdrop, efforts by the Russian Orthodox Church acquire a special meaning and importance, considering that it has been offering its effective assistance to the people of its creed there. <...>

I would like to note that the Foreign Ministry’s working group with the Russian Orthodox Church has been working and delivering results for the past 22 years. According to our estimates, this group has established itself as an effective mechanism for enabling us to work together on the key matters of shared interest on the international stage, and our colleagues from the Russian Orthodox Church share this vision. We are convinced that further strengthening this cooperation would help consolidate Russia’s international standing and promote trust, mutual understanding and neighbourly relations among various nations and peoples.

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💬 Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims the following: “In every generation they rise against us to destroy us, in this generation as well. The regime in Iran planned a Holocaust. They plotted to annihilate us with nuclear bombs and thousands of ballistic missiles”. Earlier, he also said that, “had we not acted, the names Natanz, Fordow and Bushehr <…> would have joined the names of the death camps: Auschwitz, Majdanek and Sobibor”.

Was it Iran that carried out the first Holocaust? Let us recall that under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iran declared war on Nazi Germany in 1943. Subsequent generations in Iran spoke openly and positively about that decision.

So who did perpetrate the Holocaust – the mass extermination of Jews, Roma and millions of other victims? It was Nazi Germany, fascist Italy, their lesser satellites, collaborators of the Vichy regime, as well as Baltic and Ukrainian accomplices.

Since 2014, Israel has not uttered a word of condemnation about the Kiev regime, which has elevated to the rank of national heroes those complicit in the extermination of Jews – figures such as Symon Petliura, Yaroslav Stetsko, who pledged allegiance on behalf of what he called an “independent Ukraine” in Lvov, a city soaked in Jewish blood, along with other Banderites and Galicians who served in the SS.

Who financed Hitler’s Nazi Party? The Bank of England – not to be confused with the Bank of Iran – was among its sponsors. The very same forces are now backing the Kiev regime, which has embraced Nazi ideology and kills people on ethnic and linguistic grounds, including those it nominally claims as its own citizens.

To invoke Auschwitz, Majdanek and Sobibor in the context of an alleged Iranian “nuclear Holocaust” against Israel is an insult to the memory of all victims of the Second World War, the victims of genocide, the victims of the Holocaust, and the Red Army soldiers who liberated the death camps.

Why? Because such comparisons are baseless, conceptually false and historically distortive.

Israel, of all countries, should know perfectly well that Bushehr is an exclusively civilian nuclear facility – a fact repeatedly confirmed by the IAEA.

I would also recall Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at a joint press conference with his Libyan counterpart on April 21:

“Our experience has taught us to rely on facts…

In his statements, President Trump has focused on preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. The 2015 comprehensive agreement (#JCOPOA) was designed precisely to address this issue.

It provided for Iran to refrain from any military nuclear activity and introduced the strictest controls over its civilian nuclear programme – far beyond the standard safeguards the IAEA applies to countries party to safeguard agreements.

History, as they say, ought to teach us something. It would be a major success if the ongoing efforts by the negotiators – which we support, meaning the Iranian and American negotiators – were to lead to something similar to the 2015 agreement”.

👉 Not to mention a small nuance – in fact, Israel does not have a safeguards agreement with the IAEA.