🎙 Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko's interview with RT (April 4, 2024)

Key talking points:

• The establishment of NATO resulted from the panic that gripped Western elites due to the growing authority, power and attractiveness of the Soviet Union, a country that bore all the burdens of World War II almost single-handedly, ensuring the Victory [over Nazi Germany].

• NATO is still a tool of American hegemony, a tool of subjecting Europe to American military and political interests. <...> The Americans insist that their European allies increase their military spending using the threat of pulling out of NATO to force Europeans to pay more for security.

• Сonfrontation with Russia would be political suicide in the current situation. The Russian "threat" exists only in the minds of Americans and Western Europeans, specifically those who make confrontation with Russia the basis of their foreign policy.

• The paradox that this manufactured trend of demonising Russia is necessary for the survival of NATO. NATO cannot exist without an external adversary. <...> It's obvious that NATO's role would have been reduced to zero in that case, with all the ensuing consequences for the Euro-American alliance.

• Both Sweden and Finland are rapidly increasing their military expenditures, purchasing American weaponry. <...> [It does not serve the] interests of peace and security in [Europe]. It serves American interests, and that's what matters most.

• In 1999 [NATO] bombed [Yugoslavia] for 78 days. They caused a tragedy in Iraq and the tragedy in Libya. They almost destroyed Syria and many others, like Afghanistan. That's their history. The Alliance is a source of confrontation, hostility and division.

❗“Outstanding achievements” of NATO throughout its 75-year history:

▪️Expansion of military bloc from 12 to 32 members - with no real threat or reason;
▪️Ambitions to further enlarge in Europe and increase its influence in the Asia Pacific region, the Middle East and the Arctic;
▪️Aggression against sovereign states: Yugoslavia (1999), Afghanistan (2001) Iraq (2003), Libya (2011), Syria (2014).
▪️The wars unleashed by so called Alliance (former and currently striving for neocolonial domination) led to deaths of hundreds of thousands, humanitarian and migration crises, devastation and chaos.

👎There is nothing to celebrate or to be proud of.

🎙 Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s comment on occasion of the 75th anniversary of NATO

💬 Maria Zakharova: Seventy-five years ago, on April 4, 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty was signed in Washington, D.C., which marked the birth of the most aggressive military alliance of our time. <...>

The way the politicians of that time saw it, NATO was designed to become the key tool for establishing and maintaining the global hegemony of Washington and its allies, which it has remained to this day. <...>

According to its first Secretary General, Lord Ismay, the purpose of NATO was to “keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down,” and it has remained unchanged to this day.

For the US, NATO has remained a key tool to keep its European allies under control and a resource base for the US defence complex. <...>

After the Cold War ended <...> Washington and its allies engaged in armed “peacekeeping” in the Balkans, which ended in a treacherous aggression against Yugoslavia, and “fighting terrorism” in Afghanistan. NATO allies joined the US-led coalition in Iraq and carried out a “humanitarian” intervention in Libya.

❗️These interventions invariably led to entire countries being ruined and broken up.

For the third year in a row now, Washington and its satellites have been flooding Ukraine with mercenaries and weapons in order to inflict, as they say, a strategic defeat on Russia and to deplete our resources. They are using every means and methods available to the collective West and its Kiev puppets, up to and including the terrorist attacks, to get there. The alliance’s reckless schemes have failed, which fact pushes it towards moves that could entail tragic ramifications for the European and even global security.

The West has already had the chance to see that Russia is prepared for any scenario.

☝️ Our security is reliably protected and our defence capabilities are strong.

Read in full

🇷🇺 The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation:

💬 Investigators have obtained data from the mobile phones of suspects accused of carrying out the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall.

Experts analysed the mobile phones that the terrorists attempted to destroy, and their findings provided significant evidence regarding the preparations for the crime.

As directed by their handler, the terrorists chose Crocus City Hall as their target.

☝️ On the morning of February 24, 2024, the second anniversary of the start of the special military operation, one of the terrorists, acting on instructions from their handler, found screenshots online of the location of Crocus City Hall entrances and access routes, and sent them to the handler. The accused confirmed all this in the affidavit.

Additionally, the terrorist’s phone contained photos of individuals wearing camouflage uniforms with Ukrainian flags, positioned in front of damaged buildings. There was also a Ukrainian postal stamp depicting an obscene gesture.

❗️ This data suggest a possible connection between the terrorist attack and the special military operation.

Law-enforcement officers continue their operational and investigative activities to determine whether Ukrainian special services and international Islamist terrorist organisations were involved in orchestrating and financing the terrorist attack.

🎙 Briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (Moscow, April 3, 2024)

🔹 The Day of Unity of the Peoples of Russia and Belarus
🔹 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s visit to China
🔹 The Ukrainian crisis
🔹 The Meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs
🔹 NATO and EU cyber centres near Russia’s borders
🔹 First quarter of Russia’s #BRICS chairmanship
🔹 The 80th anniversary of the Red Army’s Crimean strategic offensive operation
🔹 The 80th anniversary of the liberation of Odessa from Nazi occupation

📰 Read in full
📺 Watch in full

***

#Ukraine

The destruction of monuments and the renaming of placenames continue in Ukraine. Everything associated with the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union is being erased. The Ukrainian authorities fear the historical truth and wish to eliminate it altogether.. <...>

I would like to quote what the great Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov wrote in 1923 in an essay about Kiev. “Now the town is completely exhausted after those terrifying, tumultuous years. [But] it will be rebuilt, its streets will simmer again. And may the memory of Petlyura vanish.” The same can be said about the current Kiev junta. That regime and the memory of it will vanish.

#NATO

The military and political leadership of NATO and the Western countries continues to build up their capabilities in cyberspace, which Washington and its allies view as one of the theatres of military and information confrontation. <...>

Under the guise of enhancing digital capabilities and security, nations are being drawn into aggressive manoeuvres in the information space. Washington’s self-serving approach to allied nations is evident, as they are used as platforms for hostile actions against Russia. Additionally, offensive cyber operations, often conducted under false pretences, with the involvement of numerous partners, are increasingly characteristic of US foreign policy.

#Opinion by Maria Zakharova

💬 The US tried to mark one year of The Wall Street Journal employee Evan Gershkovich’s detention as best they could.

This is what one of the last March issues of The Wall Street Journal looked like — a partly blank front page with only a black-and-white photo of US citizen Evan Gershkovich, who was detained on espionage charges after being caught red-handed, and a headline on top reading ‘His story should be here.’

Indeed, Evan Gershkovich could have written a story about the terrorist shelling of Russian cities, something the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev has been doing in recent months. Reporters come under fire, too, including American journalists, so wouldn’t this make a great report from a hotspot, which the Americans themselves had created by supplying the militants with weapons and intelligence?

He could have written a long article about all his fellow journalists killed by the Kiev regime: Oles Buzina, Pavel Sheremet, Andrey Stenin, Anatoly Klyan, Igor Kornelyuk, Anton Voloshin and many others.

He could, but he must have had a reason not to do so in all those years that he was working in Russia.

He could, if he was engaged in journalism, not espionage.

By the way, I do not rule out that it was the WSJ’s way of expressing its anger with the US intelligence services, which, contrary to US laws, continue to use journalists as their agents.

It is also indicative that no US newspaper has ever printed a blank editorial in support of the American journalist Gonzalo Lira, who spent eight months in the torture chambers of a Ukrainian prison until he was killed by the Ukrainian security service in January.

Speaking of which, have they opened a criminal case on his murder in the US? I haven’t heard of it.

🎙 Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s comment regarding the disconnection of one of the Zaporozhskaya Nuclear Power Plant’s external power lines

💬 In the morning of April 4, Europe’s largest nuclear power facility, the Zaporozhskaya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), lost one of its critical sources of electricity needed to cool the reactors, as well as for other important nuclear safety functions.

Importantly, this is not the first time this has happened. The Kiev regime remains the sole threat to the facility’s security, relentlessly attempting new provocations. As recently as March 12, the Armed Forces of Ukraine used UAVs to try and destroy the ZNPP diesel fuel depot, which is critical for its backup power supply. Kiev’s sponsors reacted with non-committal statements about the ZNPP facing “constant nuclear safety risks” amid a military conflict. At the same time, everyone clearly understands what this means at the UN, the IAEA, and in world capitals, including those that continue to supervise the Zelensky regime directly.

We warn Kiev and its Western handlers against any attempts to attack or destabilise the nuclear power plant. We urge the IAEA and its leaders to actively involve the experts present at the scene to publicly record all attacks by the Ukrainian side and clearly state from whence a threat is coming to the facility’s safe operation.

🤝 On April 5, Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Commonwealth of Independent States Sergey Lavrov met with Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Independent States Sergey Lebedev.

They discussed topical aspects of cooperation within the organisation, including in the context of preparations for the upcoming meetings of its supreme statutory bodies. The Minister briefed the CIS Secretary General on the progress in implementing the Concept of Russia’s Chairmanship in the CIS this year and the Action Plan for its implementation.

☝️ Sergey Lavrov praised the level of interaction between the Russian Foreign Ministry and the CIS Executive Committee, noted Sergey Lebedev’s great personal contribution to the development of integration in the Eurasian space, strengthening neighbourly relations and the atmosphere of friendship and trust between the CIS countries.

📆 On April 6, 1654, exactly 370 years ago, Russia's Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich Romanov aka Alexey I, granted his royal charter to Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host Bogdan Khmelnitsky. The document secured Russia’s reunification with Left-Bank Ukraine (then – part of Little Russia aka Malorossiya).

In the late 16th and the first half of the 17th century, pressure on the Orthodox population increased from the Polish-Lithuanian gentry in the lands of Ancient Rus controlled by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

After the Union of Brest was adopted in 1596, a majority of Orthodox priests became completely subordinate to the Pope. Those who remained faithful to Orthodoxy became outcasts and were deprived of hierarchical leadership, since Metropolitan of Kiev Mikhail Rogoza also joined the Greek Catholics. The gentry pursued aggressive Polonisation and Latinisation policy, and those who had the courage to resist were deprived of titles and lands and suffered persecution.

All attempts by the Zaporozhian Cossacks to come to an agreement with the Polish king failed as the Polish nobility did not plan to tolerate a free Orthodox community in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Under the threat of losing religious and national identity, a liberation movement of the Orthodox population of the Dnieper region began to form, with prerequisites created for supporters who sought to overthrow the gentry and reunify with Russia.

In 1648, the Cossacks stepped up their liberation struggle led by Hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky, who repeatedly asked Tsar Alexey I for help, urging him to take the Hetmanate under “his royal hand.”

On January 8, 1654, Pereyaslav Rada officially declared the acceptance of the Zaporozhian Cossacks into the Russian state. On April 5, Tsar Alexey I signed the royal charter, where the Russian monarch’s title “Tsar of all Russia Great and Little” was used for the first time.

👉 Read more about the Pereyaslav Agreement

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at the ambassadorial roundtable discussion to settle the situation around Ukraine (Moscow, April 4, 2024)

Key talking points:

• April 14 marks the 10th anniversary of the Nazis that came to power in Ukraine declaring an “anti-terrorist operation” against the people of Donbass. They designated them as terrorists who must be destroyed.

• Throughout these years, we knew and said publicly that the accusations of terrorism against Donbass were baseless. Now it was confirmed by the UN International Court of Justice in its decision dated January 31, 2024, regarding the claim filed by Kiev and its masters against the Russian Federation.

• The International Court of Justice has effectively confirmed that Kiev's aggressive actions against Donetsk and Lugansk were initially based on lies.

• Today, Ukraine, if we return to its arguments about terrorism as justification for its actions, has clearly become a terrorist state. Over the past 10 years it has been terrorising citizens in its own country and beyond.

• The Foreign Ministry has recently issued official demands to the Ukrainian authorities, urging them to promptly cease any support for terrorist activities, extradite those responsible, and provide compensation for damages incurred.

• Alongside the appeal made through the Foreign Ministry, the Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office has dispatched relevant documents to the US and several other Western countries, documents based on appeals from citizens and parliamentarians and detailing the actions we expect from them in connection with the newly discovered evidence exposing the support for the Ukrainian regime’s terrorist activities and preparations from its patrons.

• We all know that Kiev is not independent, but is following instructions from its bosses and handlers implementing their anti-Russia project.

• We honestly told the Westerners that they were pushing Ukraine towards a disaster. No one wanted to listen.

Read in full

#Opinion by Maria Zakharova

💬 Zelensky said that Kiev was hostage to the election process in the US.

So... were there no elections in the United States before 2024? Or is that the absent Ukrainian presidential elections have been moved to the US?

I get it. Zelensky wants to believe he’s one of a kind and everything revolves around him, but this is not the case. He is just a line in a long list of victims of US “elections,” or, to be precise, the American system. He is one of those who were 100 percent sure the United States was their ally.

South Vietnamese got it back in the 1960s.

There was a girl once upon a time, who was South Vietnam’s greatest beauty, Tran Le Xuan. She was popularly called Madame Nhu because she was married to Ngo Dinh Nhu, the younger brother and chief advisor of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem.

Ngo Dinh Nhu and Ngo Dinh Diem, the two South Vietnamese leaders, were supported by the Americans.

Even at the height of the Vietnam War, a bloody and ugly child of the French colonial system, Washington promised Ngo Dinh Nhu and Ngo Dinh Diem its full assistance. The Americans were working hard to ensure the tragic split into the South Vietnam and North Vietnam seeking to benefit from a war in the former French colonies.

Can’t Zelensky see parallels?

The US was so delicate with South Vietnamese leaders that US Vice President Lyndon Johnson visited Saigon in 1961. Later, he, then the US President, would send hundreds of thousands of Americans to die in Vietnam. During his visit, Johnson called Diem the “Churchill of Asia.” In much the same way, the US has promoted an ambitious drug addict crowning him “the leader of a Free Ukraine”.

So, what happened to the Washington allies, Ngo Dinh Nhu and Ngo Dinh Diem? They were killed. General Duong Van Minh, considered one of the most loyal military commanders, led a coup on November 1, 1963 in which South Vietnam’s top brass were arrested and shot on the putschists’ orders.

It was only by chance that Ngo Dinh Nhu’s wife, Tran Le Xuan, wasn’t killed, because she was abroad. It was then that Madame Nhu uttered the much-remembered phrase: "Those who have the United States as an ally need have no enemies". And that phrase turned out to be prophetic. In 1975, it turned out that the Americans knew of the impending coup. They could have warned their allies, saved the South Vietnamese president and his team, but just as the French did not prevent the genocide in Rwanda, the Americans "found it inexpedient" to stop the military putsch. Some sources claim that the degree of involvement of the Americans was even greater in that they inspired the coup and used the military to remove the president.

But let’s return to the American elections. Here are just a few quotations from comments, statements and interviews by the Russian Foreign Ministry leadership on this subject.

Sergey Lavrov: “This is not the first time that serious international issues that concern many members of the world community are being held hostage to US electoral cycles. However, this is a short-sighted approach.” (September 21, 2018)

Sergey Lavrov: “It is sad when these endless election cycles are starting to make virtually everything else a hostage to the domestic US political struggle. Elections take place every two years, and it is necessary to do something during them, so that the enemy will feel defeated.” (December 22, 2019)

Sergey Lavrov: “When the issue concerns a country that boasts the most powerful military and economy, and is the most influential country in the world, which holds political elections every two years, it very often occurs that the most important international issues become hostage to electoral motives of the existing US authorities, which want to ensure that their every move in the international arena scores big for their party candidates.” (December 30, 2015)

We warned them. It’s just that Mr Nhu refused to realise this or was simply unable to. Reread the first sentence of the post: now it started dawning on him.

🇷🇺 State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom:

The Zaporozhskaya Nuclear Power Plant has faced an unprecedented series of drone attacks posing a direct threat to the plant’s safety.

The Rosatom State Corporation urges the leadership of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the European Union countries to promptly address the escalating situation at the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.

On April 7, 2024, the Ukrainian Armed Forces initiated an unprecedented series of attacks on the Zaporozhskaya Nuclear Power Plant.

At 11.38 am, a drone struck the vicinity of the canteen, injuring three people.

Thirty minutes later, another drone targeted the cargo port area. Subsequently, a strike at the sixth power unit of the power plant impacted its dome.

No critical damage or casualties occurred; the radiation levels at the plant and its surroundings remain unchanged and do not surpass natural background levels.

Prior to this incident, the Ukrainian Armed Forces conducted an assault on the plant’s premises on April 5. Incursions by Ukrainian Armed Forces drones were detected in the vicinity of the cargo port and the nitrogen-oxygen station.

The Rosatom State Corporation strongly condemns the unprecedented assault on the nuclear power plant facilities and its infrastructure. It urges the leadership of the IAEA, specifically Director General Rafael Grossi, and the leaders of the EU nations to promptly address the immediate threat to the safety of the Zaporozhskaya NPP. Furthermore, it calls for a categorical condemnation of the escalation of tensions surrounding the plant.

🇷🇺Россия вносит вклад в достижение целей Международного десятилетия языков коренных народов (2022-2032). С 2016 г. реализуется Программа поддержки национальных литератур народов России.

📚В рамках этой программы изданы уникальные книги на 69 языках народов России. С текстами, их переводами, биографиями национальных писателей можно ознакомится на Портале национальных литератур rus4all.ru

🇷🇺Russia contributes to the goals of International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032). Since 2016 Russia has been implementing the Programme on Promoting Literature in Indigenous Languages.

📚As part of this Programme, unique books were published in 69 languages of the peoples of Russia. Translations and biographies of authors can be found on the portal rus4all.ru

🇷🇺🇨🇳 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a working meeting in Beijing.

📸 Photo by Russian MFA Spox Maria Zakharova

#RussiaChina

🇷🇺🇨🇳 Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov holds talks with Foreign Minister of China Wang Yi.

📍 Beijing, April 9

#RussiaChina