Key messages from Sergei Naryshkin, Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), on US attempts to politicize sports

▪️ The US administration is deeply unnerved that their crusade to isolate Russia in high-performance sports is failing.

▪️ International sports federations are expressing their reluctance to align with the US’s position on preventing Russian athletes from participating in competitions.

▪️ Several countries in the Global South are eager to participate in Russia's Games of the Future, BRICS Sports Games, and World Friendship Games.

▪️ To maintain its dominance, the US is ramping up efforts to disrupt sports events organized in Russia.

▪️ The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is seen as crucial in this effort, with its president Witold Banka potentially seeking a lucrative position after his term with WADA ends in 2025.

▪️ Banka unleashed an aggressive campaign to discredit the competitions organized by Russia. This effort also targeted foreign athletes planning to participate in these events, which stoked fears among those athletes about their future careers in Olympic sports potentially being ruined, particularly during the upcoming Summer Games in Paris.

▪️ What's more, Banka's blatantly pro-American activities, which hamper the development of world sports, are increasing becoming an annoyance in professional circles.

📽 Russian film "There and Back Again", directed by Oleg Asadulin, was recognised as the Best Feature Film in the Spiritual Section at the 22nd Dhaka International Film Festival

On January 25, the Embassy hosted a reception on the occasion of the 52nd anniversary of the 🇷🇺🇧🇩 diplomatic relations.

🎤 The artistic team of the Youth Bangla Cultural Foundation presented widely known Bangladeshi songs and dances. The Bengali part of the program was organized by Mr Shawkat Hossain, the Foundation's Advisor. The creative team of the Embassy and the Embassy School performed traditional Russian vocal-dance pieces. Mr Timir Nandi, a renowned Bangladeshi singer, sang several popular Soviet songs.

📃 H.E. Mr Md. Tazul Islam, MP, Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperative Government, graced the event with his presence as Chief Guest. The Minister recalled the beginning of the Russia-Bangladesh friendly relations, specifically clearing the Chittagong Port of mines and sunken ships by the Soviet Navy in 1972-1974 and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s visit to the USSR in 1972.

http://www.step-into-the-future.ru/eng/index-eng.phpTHE INTERNATIONAL FORUM FOR SCIENTIFIC YOUTH «STEP INTO THE FUTURE»
DEDICATED TO THE 300TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
MOSCOW, RUSSIA, MARCH 25 – APRIL 30, 2024 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE RESEARCH EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT «SCIENTIFIC AND METHODOLOGICAL PROBLEMS OF TALENTED YOUTH INVOLVEMENTINTO THE FIELD OF RESEARCHES AND DEVELOPMENTS»’ ICRED '2024
MOSCOW, RUSSIA, MARCH 25 – 28, 2024

🇷🇺 Key points from Lavrov's statements during the embassy roundtable on the situation around Ukraine:

▪️The US has united 54 countries in an anti-Russian camp, pumping Kiev with weapons and supplying it with military specialists and experts;

▪️The West does not want to notice the "spread" of weapons from Ukraine to hot spots;

▪️The weapons transferred to Ukraine have been found not only in the Middle East, but illegal batches have been recorded in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands;

▪️The West's statements that the Baltic states, Sweden and Finland could be "next" after the special military operation in Ukraine are absurd;

▪️The West understands that the disruption of the "Ukrainian project" has begun, but cannot stop helping Kiev for reasons of prestige and economic benefits;

▪️Russia is conducting its investigation of the downed Il-76 with Ukrainian prisoners, but is not closing itself to those who want to know the truth;

▪️The West is persuading a number of countries to transfer Russian weapons to Ukraine without informing Russia, and Moscow is in contact with these countries.

📆On 25 March - 30 April 2024, Moscow is hosting the International Forum for Scientific Youth “Step into the Future” dedicated to the 300th Anniversary of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

👩‍🔬👨‍🔬Every year the Forum brings together in Moscow 1,500 future scientific and technological leaders from Europe, Asia, America, Africa, and Oceania. The Forum is attended by schoolchildren and entry-level students at the age of 12-22, who have their own achievements in science and engineering.

🔬The “Step into the Future” International Forum is an unprecedented event by world standards, and not only in terms of the number of participants, but also in terms of first-class academic environment where its events will be held.

👉More info is available at the official website of the Forum: http://www.step-into-the-future.ru/eng/index.php

🎙Media accreditation is open until 5 February. The email address for applications is sitfp@bk.ru

🎙 Briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (Moscow, January 26, 2024)

🔹 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s schedule
🔹 Organising the Russian presidential election abroad
🔹 Ukrainian crisis
🔹 Terrorist attacks of the Kiev regime
🔹 NATO military exercise - Steadfast Defender 2024
🔹 EU - agricultural problems
🔹 Anti-Serbian repression in Kosovo
🔹 The Day of Lifting the Siege of Leningrad
🔹 International Holocaust Remembrance Day

📰 Read in full
📺 Watch

▪️ #Ukraine #Terrorism

On January 21, Ukrainian neo-Nazis launched a targeted missile and artillery strike against a farmer’s market and retail outlets in the Tekstilshchik residential area, Kirovsky District, Donetsk. This was the most violent attack in recent years, killing 27 civilians, including two teenagers, and injuring another 25 residents.

The premeditated terrorist attack by Ukrainian surface-to-air missiles launched from the Kharkov Region targeting Russian Il-76 military transport aircraft on January 24 was another heinous crime committed by the Zelensky regime. Everyone onboard, including six crew members, three Russian escort officers, and 65 Ukrainian servicemen on their way to a pre-agreed prisoner swap, died on the spot.

Kiev was aware of this flight and its humanitarian mission, yet they issued an order to destroy it.

▪️ #NATO

Against the backdrop of constant calls for Russia to de-escalate, the plans of the North Atlantic Alliance to hold Steadfast Defender 2024, the largest coalition military exercise since the Cold War, raise numerous questions. The manoeuvres amount to an overt provocation. For several months, a joint force consisting of 90,000 personnel from 31 NATO member countries and Sweden will be deployed near the Russian borders, spanning the territory from Norway to Romania.

This step is deliberately aimed at escalating tensions; it raises the risk of military incidents and could lead to tragic consequences for Europe.

❗️The second issue of the Bulletin on the activities of the Russian Federation Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights to protect children during a special military operation (SMO) is available at the official web-site of he Russian Federation Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Right in seven languages:

🇷🇺 Russian;
🇬🇧 English;
🇦🇿 Azerbaijan;
🇦🇲 Armenian;
🇪🇸 Spanish;
🇨🇳 Chinese;
🇫🇷 French.

The document contains information about activities of the Russian Federation Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the realization of the rights and interests of minors affected by the military actions.

💬 It doesn’t matter where or in what status a child is in Russia, in an orphanage, in a foster family, whether he or she has Russian citizenship or not. If he has a parent with full parental rights, the family has every opportunity to be reunited.

💬 Since the beginning of the SMO, representatives of Ukrainian authorities have not officially contacted the Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights. It should be noted that Maria Lvova-Belova is open to interaction with the Ukrainian side, and if official requests were received, they would be considered.

💬 It is important to understand that the territories of the DPR and LPR have been shelled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces for many years, and most orphaned children from social institutions in the republic are aware of this. Children do not perceive Russia as an enemy and expect protection and help from us, so being placed in safe territory with Russian foster families is not a traumatic circumstance for them.

*The first Bulletin was presented on April 4, 2023.

⚡️ On the International Court of Justice finding no discrimination against Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians in Russia and completely rejecting Ukraine’s reparations claims

Read in full

💬 On January 31, 2024, the UN International Court of Justice released its final Judgment in the dispute with Russia initiated by Ukraine in January 2017, based on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). The court rejected practically all Ukraine’s demands and recognised that Russia’s policy conforms to its commitments under the convention. There is no discrimination against Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians in Crimea.

The main false accusation levelled by Kiev against Russia was that:

• Russia’s law-enforcement actions against members of the terrorist group Hizb ut-Tahrir and the extremist groups Tablighi Jamaat and the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People constituted persecution of Crimean Tatars on ethnic grounds. The court did not agree with this assessment. It did not find any elements of discrimination in the standards of Russian anti-extremist legislation. Nor did it detect any signs of racial discrimination in the application of these standards by Russian law-enforcement bodies.

• The court did not find that the ban on the Mejlis, which Russia has outlawed as an extremist organisation, violated the Convention. It emphasised in its Judgment that the Qurultay is the representative body of the Crimean Tatar people. It was not banned and continues fulfilling its functions in Crimea.

• The court rejected Ukraine’s accusations of Russia’s alleged involvement in the targeted murders and abductions of Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians in Crimea.

• The court also rejected all Ukraine’s claims on the issues of citizenship. It did not identify any cases of racial discrimination in the Russian laws on granting citizenship in Crimea since 2014.

• Ukraine’s allegations about the infringement of the rights of the Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians to access to their national media, assemblies and rallies and the preservation of cultural heritage sites were also found to lack merit.

• Russia’s restoration of the Khan’s Palace in Bachchisarai was not a “cultural catastrophe” as Ukrainian representatives tried to present it. It was necessary to remedy the effects of negligence on the part of the Ukrainian authorities that had brought this landmark of history and culture to a dilapidated state.

• The International Court of Justice recognised that the residents of Crimea have access to education in the Crimean Tatar and Ukrainian languages. At the same time, a majority on the court ruled that the sharp reduction in the number of schools with instruction in Ukrainian after Crimea’s transfer to Russia’s jurisdiction in 2014, is a violation of its commitments on the right to education under the CERD.

☝️ This finding is controversial enough, especially considering that the court admitted that Crimeans chose instruction in Russian of their own free will. Were the Russian authorities supposed to drag children into Ukrainian schools against their will? All those who want instruction in Ukrainian will be granted this opportunity in one way or another in accordance with current legislation.

***

✅ The case is over. Russia is not supposed to take any special action to fulfil this judgment. All of Ukraine’s demands for reparations have been rejected.

🇷🇺🇺🇳 Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the UN:

🎙 Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at UNSC briefing on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question (January 31, 2024)

💬 The conflict has been going on for almost four months now. The colossal figures of loss and destruction speak for themselves – more than 26,000 people, including women and children, have become victims of indiscriminate bombardment and use of armed force. At least 65,000 people have been injured. 80 % of the entire population of Gaza have been internally displaced.

Due to the lack of unimpeded humanitarian access to the north and south of the enclave, especially to Khan Younis, and the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure (reportedly up to 50 %) Gaza faces equally deadly risks of famine and infectious disease epidemics.

❗️ For our part, we have consistently and unwaveringly advocated an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

Without a cessation of hostilities, there can be no meaningful humanitarian access to all those in need, no release of all hostages and no recovery of the Palestinian-Israeli settlement process on an internationally recognized basis.

☝️ Against this tragic humanitarian backdrop, we note the high-impact decision of a number of Western donors, led by the US, to suspend funding to UNRWA.

Provocative rhetoric of some representatives of Israel’s leadership, who call not only for the continuation of the military operation in the Gaza Strip, but also for the elimination of the UNRWA presence in the enclave and forced displacement of Palestinians from their places of permanent residence, is particularly alarming.

***

🇷🇺 Russia will continue to do its utmost to contribute to stabilization in the Middle East and to advance the Middle East settlement process together with the countries of the region and in coordination with other conscious mediators. As before, we are open to discussing relevant initiatives within the collective UN framework.

Read in full

💬 Key-points of Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s comments on the US strikes on the territory of Iraq and Syria:

▪️As a result of the strikes, dozens of objects were destroyed and damaged, and civilians were killed.

▪️The United States has once again demonstrated to the world the aggressive nature of US policy in the Middle East and Washington’s complete disregard for international law.

▪️The largest US air operation in the region since 2003, presented by Biden as an “act of retaliation” for an attack using a drone of unknown origin on an American base in Jordan, has no justification.

▪️It is obvious that the airstrikes were specifically designed to further inflame the conflict.

▪️Recent events confirm that the United States is not and has never been looking for solutions to problems in the region.

▪️The Russian FM spokeswoman condemned the new blatant act of US-British aggression against sovereign states.

Boost us! | Subscribe to @geopolitics_live

Foreign military officers stationed in Dhaka paid tribute to the Liberation War martyrs at the National Martyrs’ Memorial in Savar on Sunday.

Russia was represented by Colonel Sergey Naydenov, Military, Air & Naval Attaché, and Lieutenant Colonel Alexey Terekhov, his assistant.