🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with the 60 Minutes TV show (Moscow, October 20, 2023)

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❓ Question: National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby has recently said, as quoted by all US news agencies, that thousands of containers with military equipment had been delivered from Pyongyang to Moscow over the past two months. The Washington Post subsequently published satellite images which allegedly confirm that information. What was in those containers?

💬 Sergey Lavrov: I don’t comment on rumours. It’s no news that the Americans always accuse everyone. It is common knowledge.

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Today everyone is talking about the tragedy in Gaza, where a hospital was attacked, hundreds of people were killed and hundreds more wounded. Why not ask the Americans for the satellite images of the attack, considering that they are undoubtedly monitoring the area? The strike could not have gone unnoticed. The situation in the world would be much calmer if people stopped throwing stones without good reason.

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❓ Question: Does the de-ratification of the nuclear test ban treaty mean that we are ready or planning to hold nuclear tests?

💬 Sergey Lavrov: We also pointed out that we did not plan to revise our attitude to activities under that treaty. We are withdrawing ratification exclusively because the United States has been too long with its own ratification and obviously doesn’t intend to complete the process. As President Putin said, we merely wanted to mirror the US approach. This is exactly what we have done.

❓ Question: Did we see this as an attempt to sober up or bring the Americans to their senses?

💬 Sergey Lavrov: I don’t know what a politically sober American looks like. I can’t comment on that.

⚔️ On October 22, 1944, the Red Army commenced the liberation of the Norway's northern regions (Eastern Finnmark) from the Nazi invaders.

While fleeing, the Germans burned and destroyed houses, bridges, and forcibly moved the civilian population to the west. Those who refused "evacuation" went into hiding. Not far from Kirkenes, Soviet soldiers saved 3,500 innocent civilians who had sought refuge in a mine, that the Nazis had planned to detonate upon discovery.

On the liberated territories, the Red Army provided assistance to the civilian population, which ended up in an incredibly difficult situation due to the devastation caused by the German invaders. Soviet soldiers did not occupy surviving buildings, instead offering them to Norwegians who lost their homes. They allocated provisions from the Red Army's warehouses, opened hospitals, and provided locals with medical care.

The military operation resulted in Germany losing a crucial source of strategic resources. The Kriegsmarine on northern communications were also severely limited.

☝️ The defeat of the Nazis in the Arctic region marked the beginning of the liberation of the rest of Norway from German invaders, encouraged the Norwegian resistance to fight the enemy, doing so with the support of the Soviet operational command.

The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany ended on May 8, 1945.

#Victory78

📸 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov took part in #FamilyPhoto ceremony of the Ministerial Meeting of the Consultative Regional Platform "3+3" for the South Caucasus

📍 Tehran, October 23

🇺🇳 The UN Charter entered into force 7️⃣8️⃣ years ago, having been signed at the concluding session of the UN Conference on International Organisation in San Francisco on June 26, 1945. This is the official date of the founding of the UN.

💬 Sergey Lavrov: It is critical to endeavor to turn the spirit of multipolarity enshrined in the UN Charter into reality. An increasing number of countries from the global majority seek to strengthen their sovereignty and uphold their national interests, traditions, culture, and way of life.

🇷🇺 Russia consistently calls for strengthening the UN’s central and coordinating role in global affairs.

💬 Sergey Lavrov: It is time to look at fairer methods of making up the UN Secretariat. The criteria that have been in place for many years do not reflect the actual influence of states in global affairs and artificially ensure the excessive dominance of citizens of NATO and EU countries.

👉 Article Adherence to the UN Charter principles in their entirety and interconnection underwrite international peace and stability by Sergey Lavrov (October 10, 2023)

#UNCharterIsOurRules

🎙 Briefing by the Russian President's Special Representative for International Cooperation on Information Security Artur Lyukmanov

Key talking points:

💬 The Russian Federation has introduced the topic of international information security to the agenda of the UN and other multilateral and regional organizations. We have been constantly working to elaborate norms of international law and the application of norms of international law regarding to information security.

🌐 We believe that in our work within the framework of the ad hoc committee, we need to assign the greater role to the countries of Africa, Middle East, developing countries, our CIS partners that have often been suffering from the illegal use of ICTs.

• Humanity is objectively entering a digital space. There are a lot of stereotypes and mechanisms of cooperation between states that already exist there, and we see that digital crime is not just illegal, but it's also bringing in a lot of money.

From answers to questions:

☝️ Russia supports the unconditional sovereignty of a state over its information space.

• On our territory, foreign companies and foreign manufacturers should comply with the national legislation.

• We are witnessing that ICTs are being used to spread fake and misleading information, for criminal purposes, which might lead to growing lack of trust between people and states, which might lead into direct confrontation and conflicts between them.

• Fake information is used first and foremost in order to radicalize the mood of the society and turn people against each other. <...> The spread of that information is harmful to efforts not just in information security, but in efforts to ensure peace.

• Information security should be ensured through the cooperation of states at the international level.

📈 The damage every year from criminals only in the European states is over five and a half trillion euros. That is the yearly damage, and it keeps growing every year.

🇮🇷🇦🇲🇦🇿🇷🇺🇹🇷 Joint Communique of the Second Meeting of the 3+3 Regional Platform

✍️ Upon the invitation of Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran and in presence of Ararat Mirzoyan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Jeyhun Bayramov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, Sergey Lavrov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, and Hakan Fidan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Türkiye, the Second Meeting of the 3+3 Regional Platform was held on 23 October 2023 in Tehran.

The Ministers:

💬 Emphasized the importance of peaceful settlement of disputes, respect for sovereignty, political independence, territorial integrity, inviolability of internationally recognized borders, non-interference in internal affairs, prohibition on the threat or use of force and respect for human rights based on all the principles of the UN Charter.

• Discussed the most significant issues in the region and emphasized the importance of platforms like the Consultative Regional Platform “3+3” in providing opportunities for constructive dialogue and establishing mutually beneficial cooperation between the countries of the region that have the primary role in this regard.

• Emphasizing the importance of cultural cooperation, people-to-people contacts and joint projects in the field of education, science, tourism, culture and sports.

• In order to enhance lasting peace and economic development of the region, they will strengthen bilateral and multilateral consultation and interaction.

• Welcoming the ongoing processes of normalization and development of relations between all the countries of the region.

• Reaffirmed the openness of this Platform for equal participation of Georgia.

• Exchanged views on the situation in Gaza. They emphasized the need for immediate termination of targeting innocent civilians.

🤝 They agreed that the next meeting will be held in Türkiye on a date that will be coordinated through diplomatic channels.

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🇷🇺🇹🇷📞 During the phone conversation President of Russia Vladimir Putin and President of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan continued to discuss the acute crisis in the Middle East.

Deep concern was expressed over the growing number of civilian casualties and the catastrophic deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and it was underscored that striking residential areas, religious and social facilities was unacceptable.

The Presidents reviewed the active efforts undertaken by Russia at the UN Security Council, as well as the corresponding political and diplomatic steps taken by Türkiye to stop the bloodshed and ensure the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid to those in need.

☝️ It was emphasised that Russia and Türkiye have practically overlapping positions, focused on implementing the well-known two-state solution, which provides for the creation of an independent Palestine coexisting with Israel in peace and security.

In addition, issues related to the accelerating pace of mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation in various fields were touched upon.

🤝 Vladimir Putin congratulated Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the upcoming centenary of the Republic of Türkiye and wished all its citizens well-being and prosperity.

#RussiaTürkiye

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to media questions following a ministerial meeting of the 3+3 Consultative Regional Platform for the South Caucasus

📍 Tehran, October 23, 2023

💬 The first meeting in this format took place in Moscow at the deputy ministerial level back in December 2021. During that meeting, Russia, as the host, presented its vision of practical cooperation projects in various areas, including the economy, energy, trade, transport, ICT, natural resources, humanitarian affairs, education, culture, and tourism.

Agreements have been reached on all these areas of focus. The parties have agreed that participating countries would appoint special representatives to formulate national ideas within each of these areas.

• We paid close attention to the geopolitical situation in the region and expressed satisfaction with the normalisation processes between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran, and Armenia and Türkiye.

• Currently, it remains to make some practical steps in order to achieve full normalisation of relations [between Yerevan and Baku], primarily, the preparation of a peace treaty, border delimitation, and the establishment of unobstructed transport and economic connections.

• Russia is not against any contacts that Armenians and Azerbaijanis consider useful. But experts are well aware that only the Russian Federation has all the necessary materials for discussing and agreeing on delimitation, including maps dating back to the Soviet times.

❗️ Russia does not accept any manifestations of terrorism and violence that go against international humanitarian law, including the indiscriminate use of force. We believe that taking people hostage and blockading areas with civilians should be avoided.

• Our country is still ready to help in every way to stop the bloodshed and to move on to discussions of a long-term solution based on the UN Security Council resolution. We do have good relations with Israel and Palestine.

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📹 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s address to participants in the No Statute of Limitations international forum (October 24, 2023)

▫️ Seventy-seven years ago, on October 1, 1946, the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg delivered a historic verdict, condemning the main Nazi war criminals and legally securing the defeat of the Hitler regime.

▫️ The Nuremberg Trials opened a new page in the development of international law. The foundation of the modern system of international criminal justice was laid then.

▫️ It is generally recognised that the Nazi atrocities have no statute of limitations. Our country continues ambitious work to investigate newly discovered facts of criminal acts committed by the Nazi invaders.

▫️ The fact that a number of European countries, primarily Ukraine and the Baltic states, are systematically destroying historical memory, causes particular concern. It has gone so far that honours are now bestowed without hesitation to former Nazis.

▫️ I would like to remind representatives of the criminal Kiev regime and its Western patrons that, according to the materials of the Nuremberg Trials, almost 200,000 civilians were tortured to death, shot and poisoned in Kiev alone. Many of them were killed by the SS.

▫️ In 1942, the Nazi criminal Reichskommissar Erich Koch wrote in the address to the heads of the German media that Ukraine was nothing but an object of exploitation, that it should pay the expenses of the war, and its population, being second-rate people, should be utilised for the tasks of the war, even if they have to be caught with a lasso.

▫️ The “historical West” led by the US is de facto sharing a similar sentiment and is ready to contain Russia to the last Ukrainian.

▫️ Against this backdrop, the fight against falsifying the results of the Second World War and spreading a misanthropic ideology are among the key priorities of Russian diplomacy.

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📰 Article by the Deputy Head of the Russian Delegation to the Ad Hoc Committee to Elaborate a Comprehensive International Convention on Countering the Use of ICTs for Criminal Purposes, Ernest Chernukhin with the International Affairs journal.

✍️ Future UN Convention on Countering the Use of ICTs for Criminal Purposes is doomed to success

The absence of relevant universal international legal treaties in this area has led to a huge wave of crime in the information space, with serious damage to the economic activity of states and the well-being of millions of people.

It is against this background that the work of the UN Ad Hoc Committee for the Elaboration of a Comprehensive International Convention on Countering the Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for Criminal Purposes is taking place.

The Convention should be based on the principles of state sovereignty protection, equality of parties and non-interference in the internal affairs of states. It should also provide for a broad scope and criminalization.

At the same time, the US, the EU and their allies, at all stages of the discussions, strongly opposed the establishment of such a specialized UN body.

The hidden reason for rejecting the very idea of a UN treaty was the 2001 Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, developed at the instigation of the United States, known as the Budapest Convention, whereby Washington undermines state sovereignty and controls the Member States information space.

⚠️ By giving the ICC broad powers to conduct ICT investigations and create an attribution mechanism, Washington plans to use it to deliver verdicts and assign responsibility. That is why the West is trying to bracket out extensive criminalization in the future UN treaty, assuming that all these "complex" acts, including ICT terrorism, will not be considered in the UN, but in the US-controlled ICC.

☝️ Based on this, we can conclude that there is no alternative to a future comprehensive convention under the auspices of the UN.

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⚓️ October 30 marks the Foundation Day of the Russian Navy.

#OnThisDay in 1696, the Boyar Duma approved Peter the Great’s edict on the foundation of the regular Navy – “Sea-going ships shall set sail.”

A small vessel, found by 16-year-old Peter the Great in the village of Izmailovskoye and restored at his request, became the “grandfather” of the Russian Navy. Although this was not the first Russian warship, it was the vessel that sparked the Russian Tsar’s interest in shipbuilding.

The Azov Fleet became the first regular unit of the Russian Navy. Established in Voronezh, the fleet defended Russia’s southern borders. Voronezh was also home to Russia’s first Admiralty and navigation school. A white flag with a St Andrew’s Cross, now the official Russian naval pennant, was also hoisted for the first time in that city.

In 1702, during the Great Northern War, the Baltic Fleet was established, while the Caspian Flotilla was founded in 1722, following the successful Persian campaign. In 1783, the Black Sea Fleet was established, after Crimea became part of the Russian Empire.

The first Soviet shipbuilding programme was approved in 1926. The existing fleets were reinforced and the Pacific Fleet and the Northern Fleet were established in 1935 and 1937, respectively.

🎖 During the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Navy fought enemy naval forces, protected sea-going and inland shipping and supported coastal operations involving Red Army units. Seventy-eight ships that distinguished themselves in battle received Guards status and over 500 sailors became Heroes of the Soviet Union.

Today, the Russian Navy consists of strategic nuclear naval forces and general-purpose naval forces. It operates surface and submarine units, naval aviation and coastal troops. The latter include coastal missile and artillery units and the marine corps.

🚢 We are proud of the heroic history of the Russian Navy, and we cherish the memory of our shipbuilders and naval commanders!

🎖 #OTD in 1908, Dmitry Ustinov was born – the legendary People’s Commissar of Armaments during the Great Patriotic War & World War II – it was he who ensured that the Soviet military industrial complex was evacuated during the first months of the war, and surpassed the Axis potential, contributing greatly to the Victory over Nazism.

He gained this high post at the age of only 32, having risen from a fitter to People’s Commissar of Armaments. He was appointed to that post on June 9, 1941, less than two weeks before Nazi Germany’s treacherous attack on the Soviet Union. The first few months of the war were especially difficult. Ustinov worked 20 hours a day to evacuate defence plants from the endangered areas and to launch military production in besieged Moscow and Leningrad.

📈 The young commissar was assigned a vital and seemingly insurmountable task – to prevail over the German military machine, which the whole of Europe was supplying with weapons. Ustinov worked selflessly to attain that goal. During the war, the Soviet Union produced nearly twice as many weapons as Germany and the countries it occupied.

Ustinov greatly contributed to the production of artillery guns and rifles and to the challenging scientific and technological task of creating new armaments. During his term in office, the manufacturing of artillery guns increased fivefold and of rifles, by 22 times.  

After the war, Ustinov was appointed Minister of the Defence Industry of the USSR contributing immensely to strengthening the defence capabilities of our country. In 1976, he received the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union.

🕯 Dmitry Ustinov died in 1984 and was the last person whose ashes were interred in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.

#FacesOfVictory

🇷🇺🇹🇷 Russian President Vladimir Putin sent greetings to President of Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the centenary of the Turkish Republic.

The message reads, in part:

✉️ Over the past century, your country has overcome numerous challenges, achieving generally recognised success in the economy, social sphere and other sectors. Turkiye is a highly respected country on the global stage, and rightfully so.

#RussiaTurkiye relations are developing in the spirit of friendship and neighbourliness, which was fully confirmed at our recent meeting in Sochi. The two countries efficiently cooperate in a wide range of areas, with major joint projects implemented on a regular basis. Moscow and Ankara successfully coordinate their efforts to resolve pressing issues on the regional and global agendas.

🤝 I am confident that we will continue to consistently expand the scope of bilateral ties for the benefit of our friendly nations, aiming to build a more just and democratic world order.