🇮🇳🇷🇺St. Petersburg welcomes India's EAM S. Jaishankar with traditional 'Korovai' bread

🍞 Korovai is a large round braided bread, traditionally baked from wheat flour and decorated with symbolic flags and figurines, such as suns, moons, birds, animals, and pine cones.

Bread is believed to hold magical powers and it's an old tradition to welcome honorable guests 'in a Russian style'.

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🎙Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with RIA Novosti and Rossiya 24 TV on current foreign policy issues

📍Moscow, December 28, 2023

• Because of this hybrid war by the entire collective West, which was unleashed by the hands, bodies and other parts of Ukrainian society against us with the use of modern Western weapons, Russia has become much stronger during this year. The unity of our people has increased substantially.

• The overwhelming majority of states, the World Majority, have not joined the sanctions but cannot raise their voice high enough during debates for the time being. However, they are coming to realise that this could happen to anyone, and that any country could become a target for sanctions by the US, Europe or any US ally.

• More and more countries are telling us that they are with us. They understand that the lengthy process of forming a multipolar world has begun. They will help us by action but will have to occasionally trot out fake excuses (excuse the rude expression) to avoid being given a hard time. This is a serious trend.

• With the special military operation underway and our ongoing confrontation with the West, including on the economic and sanctions front, the objective substantiation of our actions takes on special importance.

• In the context of the emphasis on the Global Majority, on the countries that are ready to work with us in a fair, mutually beneficial and mutually respectful manner, including in the economy, politics, and security, our chairmanships, two of them, coming next year, are of central importance. One is in the #CIS and the other in #BRICS.

• Maybe, the West is even thinking about “specifying its strategy” because if “Russia’s strategic defeat” is a strategy (excuse my tautology please), it has failed miserably. <...> It is clear what they want to achieve – to leave as soon as possible from this grievous position, one that Europe was driven into primarily by Washington.

📖 Read in full
🎥 Watch

📰 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with TASS news agency (December 28, 2023)

Key talking points:

🔹 It is time everyone drew a lesson from the consequences of US attempts to play at behind-the-curtain diplomacy in the Middle East. It was Washington’s policy of monopolising mediation and undermining the international legal framework for a settlement that resulted in the current escalation in the conflict zone.

🔹 Neither Washington, nor Brussels refrain from assisting the Kiev regime because they realise that it would be doomed without such assistance. They remain committed to containing Russia at the expense of Ukrainians and their lives.

🔹 Americans placed their bets on force in an attempt to slow down the erosion of their hegemony. This is why they have been seeking to secure their military supremacy and have a free hand to use force. And this is how we can explain their refusal to accept any restrictions in terms of arms control.

🔹 It is obvious to us that the American proposals on launching nuclear arms control talks while keeping them separate from the negative military and political context and the dismal state of relations between Russia and the West are inadequate. We can see through what Washington is after: they want to mitigate nuclear risks to themselves while securing an advantage in terms of other military capabilities.

🔹 Armenia has been and remains our strategic partner in the South Caucasus. We are confident that all these difficulties are temporary and will be overcome with enough political will to do so. The sustainable and systematic expansion of Russian-Armenian ties meets the fundamental interests of the people in both states.

🔹 Most of our partners agree with us that sooner or later our Western colleagues will have to accept the realities of a multipolar world, and then all issues will be resolved based on a balance of interests.

Read in full

📰 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s written interview with RIA Novosti (December 31, 2023)

Read in full

#RussiaUSA

Our readiness to restore a full-fledged dialogue with the United States should not be taken for granted. Russia-US relations have become strained to the maximum due to Washington’s strategic objective of inflicting a decisive blow on Russia. We will only be able to develop a formula for peaceful coexistence and cooperation in certain areas when Washington acknowledges our core national interests and engages in sincere negotiations.

#INF

If the United States does not take any extraordinary steps to exert pressure through other means, Russia will not be the first to deploy missiles that were previously prohibited under the INF Treaty.

However, judging by the preparations made by the Pentagon, practical actions by the Americans to deploy ground-launched intermediate and short-range missiles in different regions of the world should not take long. Therefore, the time when we will have to make necessary political decisions is fast approaching.

#MiddleEast

Russia consistently advocates for the initiation of Palestinian-Israeli talks. The lack of Palestinian unity remains one of the obstacles to this.

We also assist our Palestinian friends in finding a solution. We have provided them with a venue for holding meetings in Russia. We call for unification based on the platform of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

#KievCrimes

The crimes of the Kiev regime are already under investigation. Russian law enforcement authorities are meticulously recording and documenting the atrocities committed by Ukrainian neo-Nazis, which extend beyond the timeframe of the special military operation.

Based on the evidence gathered by the Investigative Committee, the courts of the Russian Federation have already sentenced over 200 members of Ukrainian armed groups to long prison terms for their crimes. The remaining criminals will face the same fate and will be held accountable.

🎄 President Vladimir Putin sent Christmas and New Year 2024 greetings to foreign heads of state and government:

• President of the Republic of Abkhazia Aslan Bzhania

• President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev

• President of the Republic of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan and Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan

• President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko

• President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev

• President of the Kyrgyz Republic Sadyr Japarov

• President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon

• President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov and Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty (upper house) of the Milli Gengesh (parliament) of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov

• President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev

• President of the Republic of South Ossetia Alan Gagloev

• President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia Luis Arce

• President of the Federative Republic of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

• Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban

• President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro

• General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong and President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Vo Van Thuong

• President of the Republic of India Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister of the Republic of India Narendra Modi

• President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping

• President of the Republic of Cuba Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez and Army General Raul Castro

• President of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic Thongloun Sisoulith

• President of the Republic of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega

• His Holiness Pope Francis

• President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic

• President of the Syrian Arab Republic Bashar al-Assad

• President of the Republic of Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan

• President of the Republic of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa

🌐 Last year, the Russian diplomatic service pursued a foreign policy course determined by President Vladimir Putin in a situation of heightened confrontation with the collective West.

The main goals were to provide political and diplomatic support for the special military operation and to expand cooperation with countries and associations that make up the Global Majority.

👉 Main foreign policy results in 2023

1️⃣ An important milestone in 2023 was the update of the doctrine underlying Russia's foreign policy: on March 31, the President of Russia approved a new version of the Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation.

2️⃣ Russia made significant efforts to develop relations with neighbouring countries, as well as the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

3️⃣ Integration with Belarus has advanced significantly. The partner countries began working on an interstate treaty on security guarantees and the Union State security concept.

4️⃣ Amid geopolitical turbulence, Eurasian integration associations that include Russia have successfully demonstrated their resilience.

5️⃣ The progress in relations with the Central Asian states was advanced by the 6th foreign ministers' meeting in the CA5+Russia format in Samarkand in April.

6️⃣ Russia contributed to the Armenian-Azerbaijani normalisation process based on the trilateral agreements of the leaders. Visas were abolished for short-term trips to Russia by Georgian citizens, and direct flights between our countries were resumed.

7️⃣ Russian-Chinese relations reached an unprecedented level in 2023. After his re-election as President of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping made his first foreign visit to Russia in March. President of Russia Vladimir Putin visited China to take part in the third Belt and Road International Forum in October.

👉 Learn more about other foreign policy results