JUST IN: 🇷🇺🇬🇧 Ukraine-Russia War 'could have ended' in 2022 if it wasn't for Boris Johnson, Russian Ambassador to the UK says.

@BRICSNews

🎙 Excerpt from Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview to Tucker Carlson (Moscow, December 5, 2024)

❓ Question: In the last month since the election [in the US], you have all sorts of things going on politically in bordering states in this region. In Georgia, in Belarus, in Romania, and then, of course, most dramatically in Syria, you have turmoil.

Does this seem like part of an effort by the US to make the resolution more difficult?

💬 Sergey Lavrov: There is nothing new, frankly. Because the US, historically, in foreign policy, was motivated by making some trouble and then to see if they can fish in the muddy water.

Iraqi aggression, Libyan adventure — ruining the state, basically. Fleeing from Afghanistan. Now trying to get back through the back door, using the UN to organize some ‘event’ where the US can be present, in spite of the fact that they left Afghanistan in very bad shape and arrested money and don't want to give it back.

❗️ I think this is, if you analyze the American foreign policy steps, adventures, most of them are the right word — the pattern. They create some trouble, and then they see how to use it.

When the OSCE monitors elections, when it used to monitor elections in Russia, they would always be very negative, and in other countries as well, Belarus, Kazakhstan. This time, in Georgia, the monitoring mission of OSCE presented a positive report. And it is being ignored.

🤷‍♂️ So when you need endorsement of the procedures, you do it when you like the results of the election. If you don't like the results of elections, you ignore it.

It's like when the US and other Western countries recognized unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo, they said this is the self-determination being implemented. There was no referendum in Kosovo — unilateral declaration of independence. By the way, after that the Serbs approached International Court of Justice, which ruled that (well, normally they are not very specific in their judgment, but they ruled) that when part of a territory declares independence, it is not necessarily to be agreed with the central authorities.

And when a few years later, Crimeans were holding referendum with invitation of many international observers, not from international organizations, but from parliamentarians in Europe, in Asia, in post-Soviet space, they said, no, we cannot accept this because this is violation of territorial integrity.

☝️ You know, you pick and choose. The UN Charter is not a menu. You have to respect it in all its entirety.

🎙 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview to Tucker Carlson (Moscow, December 6, 2024)

Read in full
Watch on Youtube

Key talking points

#RussiaUS

• We would like to have normal relations with all countries especially with the United States. We don't see any reason why Russia and the United States cannot cooperate for the sake of the universe.

• The Ukrainians would not be able to do what they're doing with long-range modern weapons without direct participation of the American servicemen. We don't want to aggravate the situation, but since ATACMS and other long-range weapons are being used against mainland Russia as it were, we are sending signals. <...>

[The US and its allies] must understand that we would be ready to use any means not to allow them to succeed in what they call strategic defeat of Russia. They fight for keeping the hegemony over the world on any country, any region, any continent. We fight for our legitimate security interests.

• We don't want to aggravate the situation, but since ATACMS and other long-range weapons are being used against mainland Russia, we are sending signals. We hope that the last one, a couple of weeks ago, the signal with the new weapon system called #Oreshnik was taken seriously.

• When the United States and other Western countries recognized unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo, they said this is the self-determination being implemented. There was no referendum in Kosovo — unilateral declaration of independence. <...> And when a few years later, Crimeans were holding referendum with invitation of many international observers, not from international organizations, but from parliamentarians in Europe, in Asia, in post-Soviet space, they said that they cannot accept this because this is violation of territorial integrity 🤷‍♂️

The UN Charter is not a menu. You have to respect it in all its entirety 👉 #UNCharterIsOurRules

• I think [Donald Trump] is a very strong person. A person who wants results. Who doesn't like procrastination on anything. But this does not mean that he's pro-Russian as some people try to present him. The amount of sanctions we received under the Trump administration was very big.

#Ukraine

• We strongly prefer peaceful solution through negotiations on the basis of respecting legitimate security interest of Russia, and on the basis of respecting the people who live in Ukraine, who still live in Ukraine being Russians. <...>

No military bases, no military exercises on the Ukrainian soil with participation of foreign troops. <...> We cannot tolerate a deal which would keep the legislation which are prohibiting Russian language, Russian media, Russian culture, Ukrainian Orthodox Church, because it is a violation of the obligations of Ukraine under the UN Charter.

• We are not talking about exterminating anybody's population. We don't have any intention to exterminate Ukrainian people. They are brothers and sisters to the Russian people.

• It is becoming clear that there is a fatigue in some capitals, and there are talks every now and then that the Americans would like to leave [Ukraine] with the Europeans and to concentrate on something more important.

#Syria

• The Americans in the east of Syria groom some Kurdish separatists using the profits from oil and grain sold, the resources which they occupy. <...> The information [on who's backing Islamist groups] which is being floated and it's in the public domain mentions among others the Americans, the Brits. Some people say that Israel is interested in making this situation aggravate. So that Gaza is not under very close scrutiny.

President Joe Biden recently authorized Ukraine to use U.S. missiles to strike inside mainland Russia, risking nuclear war. How will Russia respond? Tucker Carlson returns to Moscow to interview Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and uncover just how close we are to global war.

“They must understand that we would be ready to use any means not to allow them to succeed in what they call a strategic defeat of Russia.”

Watch the full interview here: https://tuckercarlson.com/lavrov

Bible sales in Russia increased by 50% in 2024
https://orthochristian.com/165257.html

Among other religious publications, the New Testament by itself is the most popular, according to Chitai Gorod.