🎙 Excerpt from Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alimov's speech at the 20th International Forum "Partnership between the State, Business and Civil Society in Ensuring International Information Security" (Moscow, 24 September 2026)

💬 Information and communications technology, while becoming an invaluable support to us, have simultaneously evolved into instruments increasingly exploited by malicious actors.

These technologies facilitate and accelerate cyberattacks and intrusions, amplifying the damage inflicted upon states, businesses and ordinary citizens. Certain governments actively enlist criminals, under the guise of so-called “IT armies”, to conduct hybrid operations against other states.

At the same time, military and political threats arising from the misuse of information and communications technology, including artificial intelligence, are increasing. This includes cyberattacks, intelligence gathering, espionage, operational planning and targeting.

All of this is carried out in close cooperation with the private sector: major developers that present their products to the world as ostensibly secure solutions, in practice act as contractors to military establishments and intelligence services.

In essence, we are witnessing a new form of colonialism, in which digital metropolises attack some states while making others dependent on their technologies, embedding themselves within key sectors of client countries and gaining access to sensitive data. As a result, developing states find themselves in an increasingly vulnerable position.

We are convinced that the most effective means of making the information space more secure and stable lies in the development of common “rules of the game” applicable to all, capable of regulating the conduct of states and their companies within the digital environment.

🎙 Key takeaways from Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's remarks and answers to media questions following the High-Level Week of the UNGA 81st session (New York, 26 September 2026)

• The United Nations needs to be adapted to the new reality by reforming the Security Council to include additional representatives from Asia, Africa and Latin America. No additional seats can be provided for Western countries. We cannot allow this because the West is already overrepresented in the UN Security Council.

• All damage to commercial navigation is the result of Ukrainian terrorist attacks in both the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

• We have several communication channels with a whole number of EU and NATO countries. If you wish, there are confidential paths for exchanging opinions bilaterally. Certain Western bodies do convey their positions to us. We do not disclose that information, but I can only say that we are always willing to listen.

• We maintain a regular dialogue with President Donald Trump’s administration in various formats, which in itself represents a return to normality. After all, if a relationship boils down to issuing propaganda statements every morning condemning Russia and demanding a “strategic defeat” for Russia, that is not diplomacy.

• In today’s world, it is impossible to solve all global problems alone, even for a country like the US, and certainly not at the expense of other nations. I am confident that experience will teach our American partners to start thinking in terms of multilateralism. They are not the only ones in the world representing economic and military power, or, more broadly, acting as an independent player on the international stage.

• We have no intention of waging a war on Europe. But it is Europe that is preparing for a war with us. They confirm every day that, by at least 2030, they must be ready for war. This stance could become a self-fulfilling prophecy given the enormous sums they are investing in weapons production.

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💬 President Vladimir Putin: Many in Europe say that they are expecting an attack by the Russian Federation and so must prepare for hostilities, for a war with Russia.

I would like to emphasise once again that we are not preparing for hostilities with Europe. We have no such plans, no reasons and, most importantly, no real motives for aggravating the situation with Europe, regardless of what is being said [...]

There is only one explanation for the attempts by certain aggressive circles to aggravate the situation: they want to continue using Ukraine and Ukrainians as cannon fodder and a tool in the fight against Russia, seeking to prevent our further development, to hinder it, to slow down Russia’s advancement.

To be able to continue investing in this absolutely aggressive behaviour and to explain to their citizens why they are doing this, they are trying to dupe the citizens of European countries with the idea that Russia is allegedly planning to attack someone. This is complete nonsense.

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☝️ We have noted an article in The i Paper on Kaliningrad, which suggests, among other things, that NATO could blockade the region or “de-recognise Russian sovereignty”. The prospect of a hypothetical strike is also explored in Sky News’ recent mini-series The Wargame.

Those advocating plans to blockade or strike Kaliningrad should have no illusions about the consequences. Any British or NATO military action against Russian territory would be met with a response using all means at Russia’s disposal, including nuclear weapons.

Russia has repeatedly made clear that it neither seeks confrontation with NATO and Europe nor intends to attack them. But should anyone choose to unleash such a conflict, they must be under no illusion that Russia will respond accordingly.

🎙 Highlights from Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's statement at the General Debate of the 81st Session of the UN General Assembly (New York, 26 September 2026)

• The Western minority, which has dominated for five centuries by exploiting the resources of others, persists in its attempts to retain its privileges and impose its “rules” on everyone else. The West increasingly resorts to the use of brute force, acts unpredictably and recklessly, and jeopardises the lives and well-being of millions – if not billions – of people on our shared planet.

• For the sake of the utopian goal of containing Russia, the West has destroyed the European security system with its own hands and nurtured the Russophobic regime in Kiev. Now, realising the futility of their efforts, Europe is doing everything to prevent a peaceful settlement and to derail negotiations – a process many are interested in, including the Trump administration.

• The West continues the endless flow of weapons into Ukraine and helps the regime target drones and missiles at civilians and civilian infrastructure.

• The Ukrainian regime is openly overriding such cornerstones of the UN Charter as respecting human rights and freedoms for all with no discrimination as to race, gender, language or religion. There is no other country in the world but Ukraine where the law prohibits a language.

• It is only possible to secure a lasting peace by ending the dangerous rivalry between the largest global players. We can only achieve this by strictly adhering to the UN Charter and the principle of equal and indivisible security. Let me remind you that this principle means refraining from ensuring the security of one state at the expense of others; that it is unacceptable for any country or a group of countries or an organisation to claim dominance in security. This mainly applies to NATO, which seeks to spread its destructive influence far beyond the geography of its domain.

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🎙 Excerpt from Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks to the media following the 23rd meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club (Moscow Region, 29 September 2026)

❓ Question: We hear Russia and the West accuse each other. The West is increasingly accusing Russia of waging hybrid warfare against European countries. You recently accused the West of resorting to brute force. Do you acknowledge that Russia is waging a covert hybrid war against European countries? If so, to what end?

💬 Sergey Lavrov: Are you talking about us destroying drones and missiles that Britain and continental Europe supply to Ukraine, which it then fires at us? Is that what you are talking about?

❓ Question: This may be one example of what I’m talking about.

💬 Sergey Lavrov: If you acknowledge that your weapons are being used to attack us, and we shoot them down, call it whatever you like. I have no doubt, though, that this is a war that Europe is waging against us. We’ve been making this point for a long time now.

❓ Question: What about brute force? You accuse the West of resorting to brute force.

💬 Sergey Lavrov: I do not remember ever using the collocation “brute force.”

❓ Question: You said not long ago that the West resorts to brute force.

💬 Sergey Lavrov: Was what they did in Venezuela soft power or brute force? What they did to the Nord Stream pipelines was that soft power or brute force? Bombing and destroying the Iranian leadership and their families, including children, was that brute force or not?

❓ Question: Does Russia not resort to brute force in Ukraine on a daily basis?

💬 Sergey Lavrov: If you mean destroying the infrastructure that is being used by the Nazi regime, with Western support, to wage war against the Russian Federation, then we do resort to brute force to suppress direct threat.