🎙 President Vladimir Putin’s address at the Plenary Session of the 8th Eastern Economic Forum (September 12, 2023)

💬 In these conditions the world sees the expanding space for actual business cooperation between states that do not yield to external pressure but pursue their own national interests. We are witnessing a new emerging model of relationships and integration – and not by Western patterns, for the elite, for the chosen ‘golden billion,’ but for the entire humanity.

🤝 I expect our trade with the APR countries and economic relations in general to further expand, because Russia, our Far East, is open to strengthening trade and cooperation ties, and the potential of such cooperation simply cannot be overestimated.

We have come up with special tax, administrative and customs preferences in the Far East in order to promote the development of industrial sites and high-tech production facilities and to create new jobs, and we have taken on the construction of infrastructure and bringing utilities to industrial sites.

🚢 Transport projects are important as a means of support for business initiatives and in general for the economy of the Arctic and the Far East and for local residents there. It is necessary to expand the existing logistics routes and open new corridors for cargo operations.

Development of the Northern Sea Route has special priority among these projects. Thirty-four million tonnes of cargo were shipped using the route last year. In the next few years, the cargo traffic on this global transport corridor will only grow

Thanks to the initiative of private investors, we are building the Pacific Railway and a new port on the Sea of Okhotsk, which will allow us to utilise the resources of Yakutia and the northern regions in the Khabarovsk Territory, and to secure direct access to Asia-Pacific markets.

❗️ The Far East is Russia’s strategic priority for the entire 21st century, and we will stick to this.

Read in full

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s answers to questions from Vesti news programme "on the sidelines" of the Eastern Economic Forum (Vladivostok, September 12, 2023)

❓ Question: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made quite a splash when he said that Ukraine was ready to hold talks with Russia. If they do get underway, the United States would follow. What do you think about this?

💬 Sergey Lavrov: In 2022, Vladimir Zelensky signed an executive order prohibiting any talks with the Russian Government or Vladimir Putin. The whole world knows this. If those directing the actions of this regime decided that the Ukrainians must be ready to enter into talks, the first step would probably be to recommend or order that they rescind the order or decree prohibiting these talks.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin has said many times that Russia does not reject talks. Those trying to avoid talks must know that the longer they drag their feet on this matter, the harder it will be for us to find common ground.

❓Question: Some claimed that the goal for his trip to Kiev was to convince Kiev to enter talks.

💬 Sergey Lavrov: I would rather not try to make any guesses on this matter. So far, the Ukrainian regime has been berating everyone, including the Americans, the Europeans, and all other countries, asking for more money, assistance, weapons and ammunition.

Representatives of the Ukrainian regime can be heard making statements to this effect every day. Dmitry Kuleba, the so-called colleague of mine, has recently met with Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in Kiev and complained on camera that the Germans refuse to supply long-range missile systems. He ended his diatribe by saying that they would end up delivering these weapons anyway.

This is the kind of client Ukraine is. Those who created this regime must know how to deal with it.

Read in full

🇮🇳 🇷🇺 Russian Minister Unveils India’s Bid to Mutually Build Non-Nuclear Icebreakers

🗯 "This is a continuation of the work that we began in March of this year. At my invitation, the Minister of Ports and Shipping of India came to the Russian Federation. This is his first time in Russia. India is interested in training personnel in Arctic navigation. We made a proposal for the joint creation of non-nuclear icebreakers on Indian shipyards. We are studying this proposal," Minister for Development of the Russian Far East Alexey Chekunkov stated.

Subscribe to @sputniknewsindia

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s greetings to the organisers, participants and guests of the 15th Congress of the International Association of Russian Language and Literature Teachers

💬 Sergey Lavrov: I want to welcome the organisers, participants and guests of the 15th Congress of the International Association of Russian Language and Literature Teachers (#MAPRYAL).

For over 50 years, the Association has gained a reputation as an authoritative professional venue that contributes to intercultural dialogue and an atmosphere of friendship, trust, and mutual understanding between peoples.

It is gratifying that leading Russian language teachers and philologists from many countries have assembled in St Petersburg despite the complicated international situation and the unprecedented pressure brought to bear by those wishing to cancel Russian culture and the Russian language. But no matter where you live and work, you are united by your dedication to your profession and your love for the language of Alexander Pushkin, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Ivan Turgenev.

☝️ Preserving the status of the Russian language, an official language of the United Nations and other international organisations and a language of interethnic relations, is one of our top priorities.

In this connection, the Foreign Ministry of Russia appreciates MAPRYAL’s diverse activities, including its effort to implement numerous scholarly, educational and pedagogical projects. We will continue to provide comprehensive support to your noble mission.

I wish you productive work, new professional successes, and all the best.

📖 The book by the Chairman of the Foundation for the Study of Democracy Maxim Grigoriev 'Ukraine's Crimes Against Humanity (2022-2023)' was published in English.

👉 Read in full: Ukraine's Crimes Against Humanity (2022-2023)

This book contains more than 600 testimonies of victims and eyewitnesses of Ukrainian war crimes and terrorist acts against civilians, committed between 2022 and 2023. The facts presented by them testify to the Kiev regime's commission of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including:

▪️ Shelling of residential areas and killing civilians;
▪️ Use of the population as human shields;
▪️ Torture of civilians and Russian soldiers;
▪️ Destruction of civilian objects;
▪️ Shelling of places where civilians are gathered.

The evidence of crimes presented in the book also contains direct speech and is classified according to the types of crimes under international humanitarian law.

Report and witness accounts were published in a form of a book testify to massive Ukrainian war crimes, which under international humanitarian law are classified as crimes against humanity and have no statute of limitations.

📹 Watch the film

🗓 On September 12, at Russia’s request, the UN Security Council held a meeting on arms supplies to Kiev.

The Russian side invited Hungarian journalist George Szamuely, as a reporter from civil society. He made a detailed analysis of the causes that generated the crisis in and around Ukraine, with a focus on the role of the United States and the EU in organising and supporting the anti-constitutional coup in 2014.

Based on facts and remarks by members of the Western elites, he exposed their hypocrisy with regard to the Minsk agreements, which were used as a smokescreen to hide Kiev’s preparations for the conflict. He came to the conclusion that continued military operations benefitted the West, which sought to weaken the Russian Federation.

☝️ Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzya pointed to the desperate steps taken by the Kiev regime and its allies against the background of their clearly failed counteroffensive. He mentioned the Ukrainian provocation involving a missile attack on the marketplace in Konstantinovka, which was soon exposed based on surveillance camera footage confirming that the missiles had arrived from where Ukrainian army units were deployed. He described US and UK supplies of cluster bomb units and depleted-uranium shells to the Zelensky regime as a gesture of desperation in disregard of the fact that these munitions posed a threat to civilians and the environment for decades to come.

“Black transplantology,” which has become widespread in Ukraine thanks, among other things, to the local legislature passing relevant laws, was yet another topic discussed at the meeting. An outrageous situation was cited as an example, where a charity employee, caught red-handed while selling Ukrainian children, among other things for organ transplants abroad, was released from custody and jumped bail.

<...>

❗️ Russia will continue to draw the international community’s attention to these important topics, including at the UN Security Council.

Read in full

⚡️ Russia's position at the seventy-eighth session of the UN General Assembly:

Combating maritime crime

📃 We support establishing a specialized universal organization under the auspices of the UN to address the full range of issues of combating maritime crime in different regions.

We continue to work actively with our partners in the Horn of Africa, including in the forum of the Contact Group on Illicit Maritime Activities.

We note that we share approaches to the problem of combating piracy and commitment to maintaining and further developing the Contact Group.

☝️ As the number of piracy attacks and armed robberies against ships off the coast of the Gulf of Guinea is growing on an annual basis, Russia is committed to further participating in the activities of the Gulf of Guinea Maritime Collaboration Forum, a useful format for expert cooperation and coordination of anti-piracy operations.

We take note of the work of the Global Maritime Crime Programme under the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). We intend to expand the financial assistance to coastal states in the Gulf of Guinea from the annual voluntary contribution of the Russian Federation to UNODC with a view to enhancing the operational effectiveness and technical capabilities of regional maritime forces.

Good morning, India! 🌞 शुभ प्रभात, भारत!

📸 Can you guess location on the photo?

The correct answer will be posted in comment section later today!

🎙 Briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (Vladivostok, September 13, 2023)

🔷 FM Sergey Lavrov’s schedule
🔷 International and interregional ties of Russia’s Far East
🔷 78th session of UNGA
🔷 Ukrainian crisis
🔷 Double standards of “Hague justice”
🔷 NATO Northern Coasts 2023 exercise
🔷 Situation in Niger
🔷 International Day of Democracy

And more...

📚 Read in full

#Ukraine

On September 10, a milestone event took place in the new constituent entities of the Russian Federation, namely, the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. The first elections to local government under Russian law were held.

Kiev once again made desperate attempts to thwart people that it treats as outsiders from expressing their will. On the night of September 10 the Ukrainian forces used a drone to attack a polling station and completely destroyed it.

Were Ukrainian neo-Nazis the only ones to threaten the electoral cycle participants? Let me remind you that they were joined by the official capitals of Western countries that issued threats to election observers.

#InternationalDayOfDemocracy

The global majority countries are openly expressing their discontent with the fact that the collective West has usurped the right to determine “the only right” version of democracy and its values, according to the West, which has also claimed the prerogative to determine the standards of democracy in different states, communities and nations.

One example of this neocolonial approach is the Summit for Democracy devised in Washington. This strange platform is actually a get-together of the United States’ satellites where loyalty is the main criterion. The main goal of events such as the Summit for Democracy is to divide the international community into us and them while rallying supporters in the struggle for maintaining America’s geopolitical positions.

🇷🇺🇺🇳 Russia's position at the seventy-eighth session of the UN General Assembly:

Drug problem

The world drug problem has exacerbated during the COVID‑19 pandemic and remains a serious threat to the security and well-being of populations.

We call for equal attention to its three interrelated components:

• reducing drug demand
• reducing drug supply
• strengthening the international anti-drug cooperation based on the principle of common and shared responsibility

Strict compliance with the three relevant UN conventions of 1961, 1971 and 1988 by all states is essential for the effective functioning of the global drug control system.

❗️ We consider all attempts to destabilize it, including the legalization of drugs for recreational use, to be a threat to the national security of our country. The principle of limiting the use of drugs to medical and scientific purposes only, as enshrined in the conventions, represents the best way to implement the human rights to life and health.

☝️ We advocate for building a society free of drug abuse by promoting healthy lifestyles and keeping children and youth away from illicit drugs.

Countering the illicit drug use should not limit the availability and accessibility of narcotic drugs in medicine when they are proven effective for the treatment of specific diseases.

#UNGA78

⚡️ Russia's position at the seventy-eighth session of the UN General Assembly:

Sport

📃 We are convinced that sport is a unique tool for developing and strengthening social ties, building mutually respectful communication, and should bring closer together and unite peoples.

We are unwaveringly committed to the development of equal international sports cooperation that fully complies with the spirit and principles of Olympism, which precludes politicization and biased approach.

We find it unacceptable when certain Western countries use sport for their self-serving purposes. Persistent attempts to politicize sports cooperation, put pressure on the relevant multilateral organizations, including the International Olympic Committee, and cause division in the international Olympic movement are at odds with the Olympic goals and ideals.

🏆 We insist on holding fair and just competitions, and ensuring that all countries without exception have equal access to full participation in the Olympic and Paralympic movements.