🔴 #LIVE: Answers to media questions by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov following the Government Hour at the Federation Council of the Russian Federation

🔗 https://www.ruptly.tv/event_route?link_id=0e408e3c-6d73-4246-ba7e-5c4b5ae52a44&provider_id=14

🔗 https://mid.ru/en/press_service/video

🇷🇺 Russian President Vladimir Putin Set to Hold Annual Presser + Q&A Session to Summarize Events of the Year in less than one hour

⏳ As less than one hour left before he breaks floor, Sputnik India takes a look at the events that made headlines throughout 2023:

◽️NATO's proxy war against Russia in Ukraine;

◽️Failed efforts to suppress Russia through sanctions;

◽️ The advance of the multipolar world visible though SCO & BRICS summits, as well as 🇮🇳India's growing stance on the international arena & PM Narendra Modi's resistance to western pressure;

◽️Putin approved new foreign policy concept for Russia, underlining that ties with India & China of great importance, major goal — to create peace in Eurasia; Russia is not enemy to anyone — will defend its right to existence by all available means;

◽️ Major elections coming next year: Russia, India, the US among the most anticipated.

Stay tuned for live updates!

🔴 #LIVE: 2023 Annual Press Conference by President Vladimir Putin. Russia's Head of State holds the yearly 'Direct Line' call-in session for the Russian citizens and journalists this time combined with an annual news conference

🔗 https://www.ruptly.tv/event_route?link_id=7acf3598-cb46-47c7-82c6-594e516aff89&provider_id=13

🔗 https://t.me/news_kremlin_eng

🎙 Excerpts from President Vladimir Putin's answers to questions from journalists and the people of Russia during the programme Results of the Year (December 14, 2023)

Talking points:

• Many European leaders pretend to emulate [tough stance of] General de Gaulle, who fought for France's interests, but in reality, they [succumbed to the US] are like Marshal Petain, who became submitted to the will of the invaders during World War II.

Almost everyone [in the EU] acts in this fashion, except Fico, Orbán. They aren't pro-Russian politicians, they're pro-national, protect their states' interests. Such people [like de Gaulle] are no more. This is due to dependence on Big Brother - US.

• Fundamental conditions to restore comprehensive [Russia-US] relations will be created when Washington starts respecting other peoples, other nations, seeking compromise, and stops trying to resolve their issues through sanctions and military actions.

• We and Turkey proceed from the fact that UN decisions on the establishment of a Palestinian state with capital in East Jerusalem must be implemented. It is extremely important. We need to create the fundamentals for an Israeli-Palestinian settlement.

• Everything that IOC's officials are doing with regard to Russian sport is a full perversion of Pierre de Coubertin's concepts. The Olympic Movement was created to bring people together.

• As regards the [Western] "rules-based order" — no such rules exist. [The West] changes them in favour of it own interests. Thankfully, enough nations want to live by the rules set out in fundamental international documents.

#Outcomes2023

🎙 Briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (Moscow, December 12, 2023)

🔹 FM Sergey Lavrov’s schedule
🔹 Ukrainian crisis
🔹 International Day of Neutrality
🔹 Sweden’s assistance to Nazi Germany and Ukraine
🔹 President of Finland’s statements
🔹 Danish Ambassador Jacob Henningsen’s interview
🔹 Nazi marches and the glorification of Nazis in Europe
🔹 Dismantling the Soviet Army monument in Sofia
🔹 Day of Remembrance of Journalists Killed in the Line of Duty
🔹 Kiev regime’s repression against Gonzalo Lira Lopez, an American-Chilian journalist

and more...

📰 Read
📺 Watch

#Ukraine

• This far-fetched effort to support the Russian language scared neo-Nazi MPs to the extent that they drafted an even harsher law targeting the Russian language, and the Verkhovna Rada approved it on December 8, 2023. Vladimir Zelensky signed it the same day.

They have demonstrated all this haste in their legislative efforts not because they care for ethnic minority rights so much but because of their misguided belief that this document will create a pathway for the Kiev regime to achieve its coveted goal of joining the EU.

• If the European Union does not object to the adoption of this law in Ukraine that is not only discriminatory but is designed to eliminate the mother tongue used by millions of people, and an official UN language, it will show its true face, demonstrating that it could not care less about the democratic principles, humanitarian values, fundamental rights and freedoms of ethnic minorities.

#US

• The US and its European allies have been consistently destroying the system of international security, understood as a set of treaties and institutions. They have not supported any of our substantive initiatives.

🎙 FM Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to questions during the Government Hour in the Federation Council of the Russian Federation (December 13, 2023)

Key talking points:

• The world situation has not become any easier since our last meeting in December 2021. Many of the unfortunate things that are happening today are rooted in the irrepressible striving of Washington and a small group of its associates to impose their vision of everything on the rest of the world.

• They are no longer able to contain new global centres of growth and development in their customary straightforward and rude manner. The balance of power is rapidly shifting and not in favour of our Western colleagues.

• It pains our ill-wishers to realise that their bet on a sanctions blitzkrieg on the Russian economy has completely failed. Those who unleashed a hybrid war against us refuse to admit their mistakes and are trying to use other illegal tools to “exhaust” Russia, nurturing the dream of eliminating our country as an independent geopolitical entity.

• The policy of isolating Russia has failed. Numerous contacts between President Putin and his foreign counterparts have shown that our responsible policy based on the UN Charter principles enjoys broad support among the majority of countries around the world.

• We are not accommodating concepts and schemes put forward by other countries. We independently shape our foreign policy and remain guided by our own priorities while adhering to internationally recognised norms of international law and given the interests of our partners who are willing to work with us based on mutual respect and consideration of mutual interests.

• The Western part of the Eurasian continent is sinking deeper into a political, socio-economic and ideological crisis against the backdrop of the positive trends that reflect the objective process of the formation of a genuinely polycentric, fair world order.

• Further cohesion in the multiethnic and multifaith Russian World is also on our agenda.

📄 Read in full

⚡️ Joint Statement In Support of the Efforts to Strengthen the United Nations Secretary-General's Mechanism for Investigation of the Alleged Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons (Geneva, 13 December, 2023)

🇻🇪🇧🇫🇪🇷🇮🇷🇰🇬🇨🇳🇧🇾🇰🇿🇲🇱🇳🇮🇲🇲🇹🇯🇬🇶🇷🇺🇸🇾🇨🇫

📃 We, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Kyrgyz Republic, the People's Republic of China, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Republic of Mali, the Republic of Nicaragua, the Republic of Tajikistan, the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, the Russian Federation, the State of Eritrea, the Syrian Arab Republic, reaffirm our dedication to protecting humanity from chemical and biological warfare, recognize the common interest of all humankind in excluding completely the possibility of the use of chemical, bacteriological (biological) and toxin weapons.

We underline that the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction (BWC), the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction (CWC) and the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare (Geneva Protocol) are essential for international peace and security.

🇺🇳 We note efforts by the UN Secretary-General and UN Secretariat, as well as national initiatives to provide relevant training to experts that could support the Secretary-General's Mechanism for Investigation of Alleged Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons (UNSGM).

👉 We are convinced that there is need for intensifying efforts of the international community with support of the UN Secretariat to strengthen the expert and technical capabilities of the UNSGM.

Read in full

🗓 On December 15, Russia marks the Remembrance Day of Journalists Killed in the Line of Duty.

This memorial day was established in 1991 by the Union of Journalists of Russia.

On this day we pay tribute to the memory of selfless reporters, photographers and cameramen who perished in the line of duty, including in danger zones and hot spots.

💬 Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova:

Few professions entail as many risks to life and well-being as journalism; some reporters never return from their missions. That's why we deeply appreciate the honest and selfless work of journalists and frontline reporters, TV anchors, cameramen, and photographers who willingly immerse themselves in the midst of events to provide their audience with accurate and timely information, offering a full and unbiased picture of what is happening. Often this dedication comes at the ultimate cost – their lives.

This year, it saddens our hearts to re-iterate that Russian journalism has once again suffered irreplaceable losses. Alongside their families, friends & colleagues, we mourn the loss of Vladlen Tatarsky (Maxim Fomin), Rostislav Zhuravlev, and Boris Maksudov, who fell victim to the criminal Kiev regime, its militants and terrorists.

Many others have faced death – they have been targeted or come under fire when the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked the civilian population and infrastructure with drones and other means.

❗️The Nazi regime in Kiev views Russian frontline reporters as high-priority targets, hunting them down because their reports expose the true brutal nature of the entrenched neo-Nazism and its violent crimes, debunking the myths propagated by Ukrainian and Western propaganda.

I want to extend my sincerest gratitude to all members of the media community who courageously follow their calling, putting themselves at risk day after day to carry out their work faithfully.

🙏🏻 Thank you. You are true heroes.

(from the Maria Zakharova's weekly briefing on foreign policy issues, December 12, 2023)

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

🎙 Statement by First Deputy Permanent Representative Dmitry Polyanskiy at UNSC open debate "Addressing the threat posed by diversion, illicit trafficking and misuse of small arms and light weapons and their ammunition to peace and security"

Read in full

💬 The situation in the world clearly demonstrates the importance of controlling transfers of conventional arms and military products, including small arms and light weapons (SALW). Risks of proliferation, illicit trafficking, and falling of SALW into the hands of terrorists and criminals grow almost daily.

Small arms and light weapons remain one of the widest used weapons in regional and localized conflicts. They surpass any other category of weapons in terms of the number of human casualties resulting from their use in combat.

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The Russian Federation has consistently devoted considerable attention to issues of control over the supply of military goods, including with regard to SALW. We keep strengthening national legislation in this area and are ready to share relevant expertise.

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❗️ Western countries continue to supply arms to Ukraine despite the fact that its leadership is simply unable to control the incoming shipments and arsenals.

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👉 Russia has every opportunity to give a worthy response to any supplied weapons being used against us. However, we trust that the overwhelming majority of member states realize who bears the main responsibility for violating international agreements in this area.