✉️ Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s greetings to participants in the event dedicated to inaugurating Kazan as Cultural Capital of the Islamic World in 2026 (December 15, 2025)

💬 Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, friends,

I am delighted to welcome the ambassadors of the member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), representatives of the federal authorities, members of the delegation of the Republic of Tatarstan, the leaders of religious associations, and all other guests.

Russia as the largest Eurasian power and a civilisational state has traditionally maintained honest relations with Islamic countries based on mutual trust.

An absolute majority of Muslim countries are our long-time friends and partners. We are united by our strong commitment to building a more just multipolar world on the principles of the UN Charter in their entirety, interconnection and as a whole, and on the values of equal and indivisible security.

☝️ We are firmly committed to respect for the cultural and civilisational diversity of nations, and their natural right to freely choose their development paths.

In this connection, we regard the decision of the 13th Conference of the Ministers of Culture of the Islamic World, organised by the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ICESCO), to declare Kazan as the Cultural Capital of the Islamic World in 2026 as recognition of our multinational and multifaith country’s achievements in the preservation of the rich historical heritage of our peoples.

The choice of the capital of Tatarstan was well-deserved. Kazan is a vibrant and distinctive city standing at the crossroads of cultures and religions. People of different nationalities and confessions have lived here in peace and harmony for centuries. I am confident that this model of harmonious coexistence can set a good example for many other countries.

Taken together, this makes Kazan a unique venue for demonstrating Russia’s diversity, developing an inter-civilisational and interfaith dialogue, and promoting the values of peace, mutual understanding and tolerance.

I have no doubt that the events planned for the large-scale programme in 2026 will help promote the best achievements of Russia’s culture and strengthen humanitarian ties between Russia and the Islamic world, and friendship and trust between our nations.

🤝 I look forward to seeing you in hospitable Kazan.

SERGEY LAVROV

🎙 Statement by President of Russia Vladimir Putin at the expanded meeting of Russia's Ministry of Defence Board (December 17, 2025, Moscow)

Key points:

• 2025 has become an important milestone in addressing the objectives of the special military operation. The Russian Armed Forces have secured and firmly maintain the strategic initiative along the entire line of contact.

• In 2025, more than 300 settlements have already been liberated, including major cities that had been turned by the adversary into fortified strongholds.

🇷🇺🇰🇵 I would also like to note our North Korean combat comrades. By decision of Comrade Chairman of the State Affairs of the DPRK Kim Jong-un, they were dispatched to take part in the liberation of the Kursk region and, shoulder to shoulder with Russian servicemen, fought the enemy with valour and courage. They took part in large-scale and extremely complex efforts to clear mines from the liberated Kursk region.

• Successful tests have been conducted of the Burevestnik strategic cruise missile with unlimited range and the Poseidon unmanned underwater vehicle. Thanks to the use of a nuclear power unit, these systems will remain unique and unmatched for a long time, ensuring strategic parity, Russia’s security and its global standing for decades to come. We will continue working on these systems – refining, upgrading and improving them – but they already exist. By the end of 2025, an intermediate-range missile system equipped with the Oreshnik hypersonic missile will be placed on combat duty.

❗️ Russia has always, even in the most difficult circumstances, as long as there was even the slightest chance – sought diplomatic solutions to contradictions and conflicts. Responsibility for the fact that these chances were not used lies entirely with those who believed that it was possible to speak to us in the language of force.

• We stand for building mutually beneficial and equal cooperation with the US and European states, and for the formation of a unified security system across the entire Eurasian region. We welcome the progress that has emerged in the dialogue with the new US Administration. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the current leadership of most European countries.

• We are fully aware that in any international environment, our Armed Forces remain the key guarantor of Russia’s sovereignty and independence, its security and future, and of strategic parity. We must work consistently to strengthen them.

• Immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it seemed to us that we would very quickly become part of the so-called civilized family of European nations. Instead, Russia continued to be pressed from all sides – increasingly so. Virtually everything concerning Russia was decided from a position of force. They would pat us on the shoulder and invite us to various events, yet when it came to their interests vis-à-vis Russia, the West pushed them through by force, including by military means.

• President Trump says that if he had been President at the time, the conflict in Ukraine would not have happened. Perhaps that is so, because the previous US Administration deliberately steered the events towards an armed conflict.

👉 The objectives of the special military operation will undoubtedly be achieved. We would prefer to do so and to eliminate the root causes of the conflict through diplomatic means. However, if the opposing side and its foreign patrons refuse to engage in a substantive dialogue, Russia will secure the liberation of its historical lands by military means. Efforts to establish and expand a security buffer zone will continue on a systematic basis.

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🇺🇳 24 years ago, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) was established.

Its mandate includes developing best practices to address challenges related to global urbanization, facilitating experience exchange, and promoting new technologies in urban management and development. The Programme’s headquarters is located in Nairobi, Kenya.

Russia has been productively cooperating with #UNHabitat since the establishment in 1977 of its predecessor, the UN Centre for Human Settlements.

On 21 December 2001, the UN General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution upgrading the Centre to the status of a full-fledged UN operational agency.

We support UN-Habitat as a key structure within the UN system for ensuring specialised intergovernmental cooperation.

As an active member of its governing bodies and one of the leading contributors to its budget, Russia consistently advocates for enhancing the Programme’s effectiveness in line with its mandate, unlocking its full potential, and strengthening its sustainability, transparency and financial stability.

Following the elections to the Executive Board, Russia was re-elected by acclamation to this governing body for the 2025–2029 term.

Within UN-Habitat’s programme activities, we attach primary importance to upholding the interests of the Global South and advancing a positive, unifying agenda.

🥳 We congratulate the Secretariat and Member States on this anniversary and wish them continued success!

🎬 Announcing: The International Documentary Film Festival "RT.DOC: Time of Our Heroes"

The Russian House in Bangladesh is proud to present a special selection from the "Time of our Heroes" International Documentary Film Festival. Join us for an exploration of courage, justice, and the enduring impact of history.

The special festival program in Dhaka includes two powerful films produced by RT.Doc:

▶️ "Nuremberg: The Time of Truth"

▶️ "The Warrior Was Alone": A compelling story of individual bravery and resilience.

🎤The films will be presented by Dmitry Khrustalev, an author of RT's documentary channel

🎓 Festival Screenings Schedule:

📆 December 22
📍Russian House in Bangladesh

📆 December 23
📍 Daffodil University: 2:30 PM
📍 North South University: 6:30 PM

Join us for this cinematic journey into the stories that shape our world. The time of our heroes is now.

#TimeOfOurHeroes #DocumentaryFilmFestival #RussianHouseBangladesh #Nuremberg #DhakaEvents #Films

The Embassy of Russia extends heartfelt congratiulations to the Christian community of Bangladesh on the occasion of Christmas. We wish you peace, prosperity and well-being ✨

⚡️ The 2025 Report On Violations of the Rights of Russian Citizens and Compatriots in Foreign Countries by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

📖 Read the full report

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation is consistently paying close attention in its work to violations of the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens and compatriots in foreign countries and makes considerable efforts to protect the interests of our compatriots within the authority of its diplomatic missions. <...>

Russians continue to be subjected to barbaric discrimination, primarily in Europe and North America where persist wide-spread and already known violations of the rights of Russians, such as:

• denial of a wide range of services (educational, medical, banking, etc.);
• imposition of measures against Russian businesses;
• seizure of property of Russian citizens;
• forcing them to public repentance;
• condemnation of the actions of Russian authorities;
• suspension of Russian athletes from sports and cultural events.

There are continued reports of attacks, threats and insults against Russians, deliberate damage of their property and all sorts of discrimination in everyday life. <...>

In the light of support for the Neo-nazi regime in Kiev demonstrated by the collective West, the most Russophobic policy is pursued by Poland, Baltic States, Ukraine and some other countries.

Under the pretext of "condemning Russian aggression" all these countries have boosted their efforts to fight against monuments and memorials commemorating Red Army soldiers. As true followers of Nazi ideology, they brought Europe almost to the point of paranoia and manic pursuit of any symbol of memory in honour of the fighters against fascism.

Such ignominious acts, inter alia, contradicting the Nuremberg Tribunal decisions, are examined not only in this report, but also in the Russian Foreign Ministry’s reports, such as following:

👉 Eighty Years after the Great Victory: Europe has Once Again Fallen in the Shadow of Nazism;
👉 On the Situation in several European countries with the desecration and destruction of monuments dedicated to those who fought against Nazism during World War II;
👉 Regarding the Situation with the Glorification of Nazism and the Spread of Neo-Nazism and Other Practices That Contribute to Fueling Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.

In a number of countries (first of all in the Baltic States, the United States, Canada and Ukraine), members of the Russian-speaking community who promote maintaining of cultural, linguistic and historical ties with Russia and advocate constructive relations with our country are facing pressure and repression on the part of authorities.

In addition, the authorities in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine continue squeezing the Russian language out of all educational institutions, thus limiting the right to education in one's native language for their residents (including citizens).

Furthermore, the threat of mass deportation of Russian-speaking residents by the authorities of the Baltic States is persisting which confirms their efforts to find the final solution to the "Russian problem" as well as the unprecedented problem of widespread statelessness in their territories.

In an accelerated way, restricting instruction in Russian and imposing various bans, Finland and Moldavia try to catch up with the "leaders" of Russophobia. <...>

☝️ The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, for its part, continues to take all possible diplomatic steps to protect the rights of Russian citizens imprisoned abroad.

<...>

We continue to record cases of foreign authorities' obstructing the activities of Russian journalists and persons representing Russian media.

❗️ We reiterate that all such actions demonstrate the desire of Western countries to eradicate alternative points of view and prevent the realization of one of the basic rights of their citizens, i.e. the right to freedom of expression.

🎙 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at the meeting of the United Russia General Council’s Commission on International Cooperation (Moscow, December 18, 2025)

💬 Sergey Lavrov: One of the most egregious forms of neo-colonialism is interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states. The West has never relinquished these methods, though they have evolved and become more superficially acceptable. Their essence, however, remains unchanged: to prosper at others’ expense and to dictate how other nations should organise their governance and societies.

The tools employed include coercive pressure, direct military intervention, orchestrating so-called colour revolutions, and covert (and at times overt) interference in electoral processes – attempting to manipulate the free expression of citizens’ will and to dispute election results across a wide array of countries. Today, what we may rightly term “electoral neo-colonialism” poses a very real threat to the nations of the Global Majority. <...>

To discredit and falsify elections (when their outcomes do not suit the West and align with the aspirations of Western elites), a whole arsenal of unscrupulous methods is deployed. These include funding so-called “independent” (in reality, pro-Western) media, brazenly promoting false narratives, aggressively backing Western-favoured candidates regardless of their meagre domestic popularity, and manipulating international observation mechanisms. Biased assessments of election results are then laundered through structures like the OSCE/ODIHR [Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights] observation missions and presented as the “opinion of the international community.” <...>

All our efforts undertaken since the end of the 1990s and focused on the election factor to reach an agreement on drafting a provision regulating the operation of the ODIHR, primarily in election monitoring, which was to be adopted by consensus at the OSCE, have been rejected by the West. <...>

I was shocked by the “candour” of EU politicians when European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen publicly cautioned US President Trump against interfering in European democracy a week ago: “It is not on us, when it comes to elections, to decide who the leader of the country will be, but on the people of this country. That’s the sovereignty of the voters, and this must be protected. Nobody else is supposed to interfere, without any question.”

🤷‍♂️ Everyone remembers how it happened in Romania and Moldova, yet these people do not hesitate to make such “statements.”

As for election technologies, our country has been in the spotlight and under the gaze of Western geopolitical spin-doctors. We saw an unprecedented number of attempts at meddling during the Russian Federation’s presidential election in March 2024, unprecedented in the variety of forms and sophistication of methods. A wide variety of methods were actively used. The ill-wishers, who stood behind them, were attempting to discredit the free expression of people’s will and call into question its legitimacy and conformity to law. More than that, this was the case at all stages of the election campaign, from its announcement, or maybe even earlier, to the official designation of timeframes, to the nomination period, to the registration of nominees, to the polling days, and to the election count. <...>

We need to counterpose the multiplicity of democratic forms of statehood and organisation of society with what Europeans are attempting to impose on the rest of the world through their neoliberal agenda.

The fact that the United States no longer desires such democracy as it is understood in Europe is a serious indicator. Not long ago, US President Donald Trump, commenting on the Ukraine situation, advised Zelensky not to trample on democracy and to hold elections.

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⚡️ Comment by Aide to the President Yury Ushakov following the telephone conversation between Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump (December 28, 2025)

💬 Yury Ushakov: President Vladimir Putin has just finished his telephone conversation with President of the United States Donald Trump.

The conversation took place at the US President’s initiative. The US President wished to discuss the current developments in the context of the Ukrainian conflict and its potential resolution with the President of Russia.

President Trump wished to discuss these matters before his in-person meeting with Zelensky later today at Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

Logically, at the beginning of the conversation that continued for 1 hour and 15 minutes, the presidents exchanged warm Christmas and New Year greetings and, naturally, wished happiness to both nations.

The rest of the conversation was similarly friendly, good-natured and business-like, with mutual interest in making progress towards a long-term resolution of the Ukrainian conflict.

Donald Trump paid close attention to Russia’s assessment of the realistic prospects for an agreement, and to our President’s detailed rationale for the fundamental importance of continuing to build upon the Russian-American understandings established during the Anchorage summit and the numerous subsequent contacts between the two administrations.

Most significantly, the Russian and US presidents share a broadly similar view that the temporary ceasefire proposed by Ukraine and Europe – under the pretext of preparing for a referendum or other such measures – would merely prolong the conflict and risk a renewed escalation on the battlefield. <...>

Donald Trump repeatedly emphasised the necessity of ending the war as swiftly as possible and spoke of the impressive prospects for economic cooperation between the United States and both Russia and Ukraine that would open up once the hostilities are over.

He acknowledged that the Ukrainian crisis has been his most formidable foreign policy challenge, stating that he now saw renewed proof of Russia’s commitment to a political and diplomatic settlement. It is with this understanding that he intends to frame his forthcoming negotiations with Zelensky.

It is particularly noteworthy that during today’s conversation, the Russian President acceded to the American proposal to continue efforts to resolve the Ukrainian situation through two specially established working groups. One will address various security dimensions, and the other, economic matters. <...>

❗️ Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump agreed to speak again by telephone promptly after the US President’s meeting with the Ukrainian delegation at Mar-a-Lago this evening.

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with TASS News Agency (December 28, 2025)

Key points

• Russia appreciates efforts by President of the United States Donald Trump and his team to achieve a peace settlement. We are committed to continuing to work with the American negotiators to devise lasting agreements for addressing the conflict’s root causes.

We see that Vladimir Zelensky’s regime and his European curators are not ready to engage in constructive talks. <...> Meanwhile, almost all European countries with few exceptions have been pumping the Kiev regime full of money and weapons.

• There has been a thorough effort to review the updated version of the US National Security Strategy, which is quite understandable. Its central tenets must be supported by what the US does, but even today it offers a new vision. Experts believe that this could be indicative of an effort in Washington to reconsider its international standing. <...> 👉 Speaking of Russia, one thing worth mentioning is the fact that the strategy does not contain any calls to subject our country to a system-wide containment and deterrence policy.

It may be the first time for the United States when it publicly questioned NATO’s long-standing commitment to expansionism, even if it stopped short of undertaking not to expand NATO. <...> Some of the ideas set forth in this strategy are not at odds with efforts to promote dialogue between Russia and the United States. That said, we will make our final decisions only by looking at what the US administration does on the international stage.

• The EU has been seeking to dismantle mechanisms for working with Russia. It all started somewhere around 2014, when the ruling elites in most European countries started <...> inciting Russia-hating and militarist sentiment among their people.

• In 2025, we witnessed unprecedented events with Israel carrying out a direct act of aggression against Iran together with the United States, which targeted facilities related to the Iranian nuclear programme with missile and bomb strikes despite the fact that these facilities benefit from IAEA’s guarantees. <...> We would like to note that the Iranians have been exercising maximum restraint and composure by responding to all the provocations and blackmail on behalf of the West by stating their commitment to dialogue and resolving the lingering differences by political means.

We have shared our assessment of the situation in the Gaza Strip many times. We welcomed international mediation efforts. Thanks to these efforts the hot phase of the bloodshed that lasted since October 2023 was stopped and the mass starvation of the Palestinians prevented. <...>

The main thing here is to remedy the historical injustice and provide for establishing a viable Palestinian state, which would coexist with Israel.

• Taiwan is currently used as a tool of military-strategic deterrence against the PRC. This is also a matter of pursing vested interests. <...> We believe that the Taiwan problem is an internal affair of the PRC.

• Whether leaders like Ursula von der Leyen, Friedrich Merz, Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron and the like have reached a point of no return is hard to say. We do see that so far, the European war party has been investing its political capital in inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia, and is ready to go the whole nine yards. <...> Not only they do not care about the Ukrainians but they do not care about their people either.

This is the only way to explain the fact that there is still talk in Europe about sending military forces to Ukraine as part of the so-called coalition of the willing. We have said many times that in this case our Armed Forces would view them as a legitimate target.

❗️My messages for European politicians who seem to have problems getting to grips with this fact – I hope they get to read this interview – is to repeat one more time 👉 there is no need to be afraid of Russia attacking anyone. However, should anyone consider attacking Russia, they would face a devastating blow.

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