⚡️ On the Istanbul food and fertiliser agreements

There are mounting speculations on further developments as the expiration date of the second 120-day term of the Black Sea Initiative on exporting Ukrainian grain draws nearer. At Kiev and Washington’s instigation, it is being insinuated that the initiative should be both preserved in its existing parameters (the three ports – Odessa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny – for 120 days with the possibility of another 120-day extension, if none of the three parties – Russia, Türkiye or Ukraine – have any objections) and expanded in terms of time and space (for one year with the addition of more seaports). This is being accompanied by clumsy attempts to invoke UN efforts to ensure global food security.

In this connection, a reminder of the UN Secretary-General’s grain deal concept in general and of how the Istanbul Agreements of July 22, 2022 were signed in particular, is in order. As is common knowledge, Antonio Guterres suggested a package deal to normalise food and fertiliser supplies from Russia and Ukraine as a response to the worsening food crisis against the background of the Covid-19 pandemic, uncontrolled Western money printing, and an accelerated transition to the green economy. This suggestion was formalised in Istanbul on July 22, 2022, in the form of the simultaneous signing of two mutually complementary agreements – the above-mentioned Black Sea Initiative and the Russia-UN Memorandum on promoting Russian agricultural products.

Their synchronised and interconnected implementation is designed to reduce the threat of hunger and provide assistance to needy countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

☝️ But in practice, eight months after the signing, just one part of the package – the exportation of Ukrainian food – is being implemented. Moreover, the mode of its implementation is far from the announced humanitarian aims. <...>

Progress in implementing the Russia-UN Memorandum on promoting Russian agricultural exports is tending towards zero. The reason is the West’s stubborn unwillingness to recognise the second part of the Guterres package and their continued application of sanctions, which, despite all the empty declarations by Washington, Brussels and London, still extend to food and fertilisers. In fact, UN officials are trying to lift restrictions on Russian agricultural products; these restrictions must be null and void in a situation where global food security is at stake. But the UN efforts are futile. <...>

Thus, we have to state that the package of agreements proposed by Antonio Guterres and signed in Istanbul on July 22, 2022 is not working. The main problem is that the Western countries are sabotaging the implementation of the Russia-UN Memorandum. As is obvious, the Americans and Europeans are totally unconcerned with either the needs of destitute countries or the efforts of the United Nations, which they have long and persistently attempted to turn into an obedient tool for serving their political interests.

❗️ It is high time they stopped playing the food card. The lion’s share of Ukrainian grain is sold at dumping prices for fodder in the EU rather than in the poorest countries. At the same time, they openly put obstacles in the way of Russian agricultural exports, no matter what the Europeans and Americans say to the contrary. After all, they are not strangers to telling lies.

☝️ The West is shamelessly burying the humanitarian package initiated by the UN Secretary-General.

⚠️SAVE THE DATE⚠️

🌐 Virtual roundtable on the margins of the 52nd session of the UN Human Rights Council: "Erasing cultural identity. National minorities assimilation policies in Eastern European countries".

🗓 Date: Thursday, March 16, 2023

🕝 Time: 2:30 - 4:30 p.m.

❌ The Baltic countries and Ukraine continue to adopt discriminatory laws on education and the use of minority languages, creating artificial barriers to prevent representatives of national and cultural minorities from participating in public and political life.

🎙 At the event, experts, journalists and political scientists will discuss cases of human rights violations and crimes against ethnic and linguistic minorities in Eastern Europe.

🔗 LINK to the Zoom conference.

A Russian representative at the 52nd Session of the UNHRC:

❌ Russophobia in Europe is worsening. Under a pretext of "fighting everything Russian", hundreds of media resources have been blocked in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Poland and other EU countries, Moldova and Ukraine. Representatives of the civil society are being persecuted. Activists, journalists and political opponents are arrested or forced to leave. National origin, ethnic and linguistic discrimination is rampant. War on cultural heritage and monuments has been unleashed.

👨‍🦯 OHCHR turns a blind eye to the manifestations of neo-Nazism in Ukraine, the country’s ban on the activities of opposition parties and movements, arrests and torture of dissidents, human rights defenders, Ukrainian public figures.

📄 Full statement (🇷🇺/🇬🇧)

March 8, the International Women's Day, is among the favourite public holidays in the Russian Federation.

🌷 Officially observed in our country since 1965 (10 years before the UN also declared it the International Women's Day), March 8 in Russia is not just a tribute to the women's rights movement, but also a celebration of spring, beauty, compassion and wisdom.

🇷🇺 Women in Russia are among the most prominent public figures, government officials, scientists, athletes, space explorers, entrepreneurs, etc. The list goes on - no frontier is beyond their reach.

👩‍👧‍👦 But, above all, women are the ones who bring us into this world, enfold us with immense love and care, inspire to new achievements, give meaning and purpose.

💐 No words can describe our gratitude, that is why on March 8 we shower our women with flowers and affection.

Happy #IWD2023!

↔️ When it comes to the International Women’s Day, there’s a certain difference between Russia and a number of countries within “the collective West”.

🇷🇺 Russia: “We know how much in life depends on you, our dear women, on your hard work and generous souls, how much effort you put into taking care of children, keeping love, comfort and harmony within your families”.

🤷🏻‍♀️ Meanwhile, certain Western countries get confused defining “What is a woman?”

#IWD2023

⚠️SAVE THE DATE⚠️

🌐 Virtual roundtable on the margins of the 52nd session of the UN Human Rights Council: “Violations of the norms and principles of warfare by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Ukrainian military groups”.

🗓 Date: Wednesday, March 15, 2023

🕝 Time: 2:30 - 4:30 p.m.

❗️ Gross violations of the norms and principles enshrined in the Hague Conventions, the Geneva Conventions on the Protection of Victims of War and their Additional Protocols by the AFU and Ukrainian military groups have been recorded since the spring of 2014.

💥 Regrettably, with the transition of the armed conflict into an active phase in February 2022, the number of such violations has increased dramatically. During the event, the discussion will focus on the following issues related to the AFU and Ukrainian military groups:

▪️facts of use of prohibited methods of warfare;

▪️ facts of ill-treatment and executions of POWs;

▪️ testimonies of victims and eyewitnesses of Ukrainian war crimes.

🔗 LINK to the Zoom conference

🎙 "Право на ответ" российского представителя на 52-ой сессии СПЧ ООН в ходе диалога по докладу Верховного комиссара:

❗️ Вместо того, чтобы заниматься решением своих внутренних проблем, страны ЕС, США и их последователи разжигают межнациональную рознь, поставляют оружие на Украину, позволяя своему военно-промышленному комплексу обогащаться на жизнях ни в чем не повинного гражданского населения.

🇺🇸/🇬🇧 В результате действий США и Великобритании за последние десятилетия погибли сотни тысяч гражданских лиц, женщин, детей, пожилых и инвалидов в Сербии, Ираке, Афганистане, Ливии и других странах. Никто за эти жизни с Вашингтона и Лондона так и не спросил.

🇫🇷 Франция, видимо забыв свое колониальное прошлое, вновь пытается насаждать свои порядки на африканском континенте под благовидными правозащитными предлогами, попутно жестоко подавляя любое инакомыслие у себя дома.

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🎙 Right of reply by a Russian representative at the 52-nd Session of the UNHRC during the debates on the High Commissioner's report:

❗️ Instead of dealing with their domestic problems, the EU countries, the US and their followers provoke ethnic discord, supply weapons to Ukraine, allowing their military industries to profit off the lives of innocent civilians.

🇺🇸/🇬🇧 Hundreds of thousands of civilians, women, children, seniors and people with disabilities were killed over the past decades in Serbia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and other countries as a result of the US and UK actions. Has anyone held Washington and London accountable for these lives?

🇫🇷 France, apparently having forgotten its colonial past, is trying to once again impose its own rules under plausible human rights pretexts on the African continent while brutally suppressing any dissent at home.

📄 Full statement

🎙 Russian FM Sergey Lavrov on the situation in Georgia and the Western hypocricy:

🇬🇪 The situation in Tbilisi looks very much like Maidan in Kiev.

❗️ There is no doubt that the law demanding registration of the NGOs, if their budgets have foreign funding of just over 20%, was just a pretext to make an actual attempt at a violent coup.

🌐 The Western stance, of the US State Department, pompously declaring inadmissibility of such treatment of the civil society, raises nothing but a smile. These are the “rules” the West has been talking about. We talk about the international law, the West talks about the rules-based world order.

🇬🇪/🇲🇩 There you have it – the Georgian opposition is not only allowed, it has to do whatever it pleases. Meanwhile, protests against the ruling government in Moldova are being condemned. Because the Georgian opposition reflects the Western interests, and the opposition in Moldova doesn't, while the Western interests stand with the Moldovan government.

📑 Full statement

🇺🇳 The annual National Dress Day at the UN Human Rughts Council is a celebration of world cultures and traditions + the only day of the year, when diplomats are encouraged to dress extra fancy to work.

🇷🇺 Watch the ladies from our Mission to the UN in Geneva wear Russian traditional Sarafan dresses to the occasion.

🎙 Russian MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s reply to a media question regarding extension of the grain deal

❓ Question: Ukraine has resumed talks with partners regarding the grain deal. Reuters reported, with a reference to a top official in the Ukrainian authorities, that Ukraine commenced talks to extend the grain deal. According to the report, the Russian side did not take part in the talks. What can you say about these reports?

💬 Answer: We are well aware of the statements by various sides, including the Kiev regime, on the extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, whose second term (120 days) expires on March 18. There were no talks conducted in this regard, especially with participation of the Russian representatives.

Our general position regarding the package proposal of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, which comprises the Russia-UN Memorandum to normalise national agricultural exports, as well as the aforementioned Black Sea Grain Initiative, is well-known and remains intact.

We proceed from the fact that the agreements entered into in Istanbul on July 22, 2022, need to be fulfilled in conjunction with one another in order to resolve the specified humanitarian tasks to overcome the food crisis and help the countries in need in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

❗️ We have to state that so far only the Ukrainian part has been effectively implemented, Russian agricultural exports continue to be blocked by western unilateral sanctions.

Another round of consultations of a Russian interdepartmental delegation with UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan and head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths, who supervise the Russia-UN Memorandum and the Black Sea Grain Initiative, respectively, will take place in Geneva on March 13.

🎙 Комментарий заместителя Министра иностранных дел Российской Федерации С.В.Вершинина:

❌ Если коммерческий вывоз украинской продукции осуществляется устойчивыми темпами, принося немалую прибыль Киеву, то на пути российских сельхозэкспортёров по-прежнему сохраняются барьеры. Заявленные Вашингтоном, Брюсселем и Лондоном санкционные изъятия для продовольствия и удобрений на деле не работают.

❗️ В этой связи российская сторона, отмечая «пакетный» характер предложенных Генсекретарем ООН А.Гутеррешем Стамбульских договоренностей, не возражает против очередного продления «черноморской инициативы» после истечения второго срока 18 марта, но только на 60 дней.

👉🏻 Наша дальнейшая позиция будет определяться в зависимости от реального, не на словах, а на деле, прогресса по нормализации нашего сельхозэкспорта, включая банковские платежи, транспортную логистику, страховки, «размораживание» финансовой деятельности и поставки аммиака по трубопроводу «Тольятти-Одесса».

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🎙 Statement by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin:

❗️ While the commercial export of Ukrainian products is carried out at a steady pace, bringing considerable profits to Kiev, restrictions on the Russian agricultural exporters are still in place. The sanctions exemptions for food and fertilizers announced by Washington, Brussels and London are essentially inactive.

❗️ In this regard, the Russian Side, noting the "package" nature of the “Istanbul Agreements” proposed by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, does not object to another extension of the "Black Sea Initiative" after its second term expiration on March 18, but only for 60 days.

👉🏻 Our further stance will be determined upon the tangible progress on normalization of our agricultural exports, not it words, but in deeds. It includes bank payments, transport logistics, insurance, "unfreezing" of financial activities and ammonia supplies via the “Tolyatti-Odessa” pipeline.

📑 Full statement