Russian MFA 🇷🇺

2022-11-27 20:06:58 Foreign Ministry Statement on the sudden death of Republic of Belarus Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei

The leaders and staff of the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation feel deep sorrow over the sudden death of the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Belarus Vladimir Makei on November 26, 2022.

An outstanding diplomat and statesman has passed away, a true patriot who dedicated his life to serving his Motherland and defending its interests in the international arena.

Vladimir Makei was Russia’s sincere friend, who made an unparalleled contribution to bilateral cooperation, to the integrative construction of the Union State and to strengthening ties between the brotherly peoples of Russia and Belarus.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sent his colleague’s wife a message, conveying his condolences to all Vladimir Makei’s friends and family members.

We will keep Vladimir Makei in our hearts forever as a magnanimous person with deep wisdom, a brilliant professional, fellow-diplomat and loyal comrade who won the affection and respect not only of his fellow-countrymen but also far and wide beyond Belarus.

We will always cherish his memory. Open / Comment

2022-11-27 16:16:54 Russian Defence Ministry on the implementation of the US military and biological programmes in Ukraine

Reminder: during the special military operation, it became known that the Pentagon's bioweapons programmes in Ukraine were being carried out in violation of Articles 1 and 4 of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC).

• An examination of papers discovered in Ukrainian biolaboratories provides evidence that biological weapons components were being produced in close proximity to Russian borders.

• This is confirmed by the work contracts, approved registration cards, reporting documents of the Pentagon’s contractors: Black & Veatch, Metabiota, CH2M-HILL.

• The nomenclature of pathogens that were studied in the framework of UP and TAP Ukrainian projects had nothing to do with the problems relevant to public health in Ukraine. Moreover, the main accent was made on the study of naturally focal and especially dangerous infections, which are regarded as potential biological weapons agents. For example, the objective of the TAP-2 project was to study actinobacillus mallei, cases of which have never been recorded in Ukraine.

•The US DoD-controlled testing of infectious disease agents and poisonous chemicals on Ukrainian military personnel and the mentally ill, two of the most vulnerable groups of population, is of special concern.

• We previously referenced a ruling of the Centre for Public Health of Ukraine's ethics committee, dated 12 June 2019, for conducting research with unknown hazards to participants' lives and health. Despite the fact that the research programme only includes standard blood sampling, the document requires reporting ‘...minor incidents involving volunteers to the US bioethics committee within 72 hours of the incident, and serious incidents, including subject death, within 24 hours of the incident’.

Despite their evident military-biological focus, the US and Ukraine remain deliberately discreet regarding collaborative BWC reporting actions. Open / Comment

2022-11-26 19:59:59 On the initiatives of the Russian Federation for the Ninth BTWC Review Conference. Briefing by Chief of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov (November, 26, 2022).

Despite their evident military-biological focus, the US and Ukraine remain deliberately discreet regarding collaborative BWC reporting actions.

In response to new challenges and dangers, the Russian Federation suggests the following:

Firstly, to reopen discussions for a legally binding protocol to the BWC that contains lists of viruses, poisons, and specialised equipment, takes into account contemporary biological research and technology, and includes an effective verification system.

Secondly, confidence-building methods should be supplemented with information about biological defence research and development outside of national boundaries, as well as animal vaccine production facilities.

And finally, to establish a scientific advisory committee with broad geographical representation and equal rights for participants to evaluate advances in science and technology related to the Convention.

The actual execution of our ideas will increase the openness of national biological programmes and the compliance of all States Parties with the provisions of the Convention.

The Russian Federation has repeatedly pointed to evidence that the United States and its allies are conducting dual-use programs outside their national borders, including through the operation of bio-laboratories under their control and
so-called shared-use laboratories funded by these States’ military departments or organisations affiliated with them.

Many questions concerning the true goals of the Pentagon's research programs have so far gone unanswered.

We want to return to them during the next Ninth Review Conference of the BWC States Parties. Open / Comment

2022-11-26 19:52:16 Joint statement by Foreign Ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation member states on expanding cooperation in international information security.

The CSTO Member States:

<...>

urge the global community to abstain from illegal use of ICT to damage information resources, critical infrastructure and other important facilities of states.

acknowledge the paramount need to prevent conflicts with the use of ICT and for this purpose call for strengthening cooperation between states on the entire range of issues related to international information security involving authorised national agencies.

call for ensuring international information security based on the UN Charter and common norms and principles of international law.

acknowledge the importance of boosting interaction of the CSTO member states on the issues related to the use of the internet, including to ensure equal rights of the states for access to the global network <...>

Read in full Open / Comment

2022-11-26 17:52:28 Open / Comment

2022-11-26 17:00:00 Open / Comment

2022-11-26 15:09:44 Briefing by Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova

Moscow, November 24, 2022

FM Sergey Lavrov’s schedule
Ukrainian crisis
On Russian delegation’s participation in the G20 Summit in Bali
Russian literature events
Cultural events in several Asian and African countries
Russia-UNESCO
100th birth anniversary of Mayanist scholar Yury Knorozov
Forum of EAEU Young Civil Servants
Normandie-Niemen Squadron 80th Anniversary

And more...

Read full transcript
Watch in full Open / Comment

2022-11-26 09:40:13 #OTD 210 years ago, on November 26, 1812, the last major battle of the Patriotic War of 1812 between the Russian army and the retreating army of Napoleon began on the Berezina River (the right tributary of the Dnieper). The Russian commanders’ plan was to cut off the enemy’s retreat.

The plan included launching a simultaneous and decisive offensive with all forces deployed on the flanks of the main Russian army in order to defeat the troops guarding Napoleon’s rear and cut off his retreat to the west. At the same time, the main Russian army group led by Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov was to pursue the Grande Armée of the Emperor of France Napoleon from the east.

By the end of the three-day battle, Napoleon realised that his artillery and supply train were beyond saving. Less than half of the 85,000-90,000 men were eventually transported to the right bank of the Berezina. Russian troops surrounded the French General Louis Partouneaux’s division (some 4,000 men) in the vicinity of Borisov and forced them to surrender. In total, according to historians, the losses of the French army reached ~50,000 men, including those who drowned in the river, died in the stampede at the crossings, froze to death and were taken prisoner.

The Battle of Berezina broke the Emperor of France. Less than two weeks after the battle ended, Napoleon abandoned his guard and fled to Paris. Only a few dozen thousands of the 500,000 strong army that invaded Russia in June 1812 managed to leave our country six months later.

It was after Berezina that the French realised the scale of their defeat in Russia. The elimination of what Napoleon once called his “grand” army shocked the people of France so deeply that the expression “C'est la Bérézina” (this is Berezina) became idiomatic in the French language to denoting a complete failure, collapse, or catastrophe. No less important were the impressions of the survivors, that radically changed how other Europeans perceived that war. Open / Comment

2022-11-25 13:50:54 On November 24, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had a telephone conversation with Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Republic of Zambia Stanley Kasongo Kakubo, at the initiative of the Zambian side.

During their detailed conversation, the heads of foreign policy agencies discussed a number of key issues of the bilateral agenda aimed at ensuring the future sustainable development of the entire range of the traditionally friendly #RussiaZambia interstate relations, including expanding trade, and economic and investment ties.

The sides reaffirmed the readiness of Moscow and Lusaka to expand cooperation at the UN and other multilateral venues as regards regional and global issues by invariably complying with the principles of international law and the UN Charter.

#RussiaAfrica Open / Comment

2022-11-25 00:30:01 #Opinion by Russian MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova

What kind of Nazis are they?! (rephrased from the Western media mantra There are no Nazis in Ukraine)

Canada legalised physician-assisted suicides in 2016. The number of people who wish to be euthanised has been growing annually. In all probability, Canada will reach 50,000 such deaths a year – an achievement worthy of a country that took care, gave refuge to the surviving Nazi scum.

I will remind you that the Third Reich with its Aktion T4 programme (Tiergartenstraße-4) was the first state to introduce euthanasia on a mass scale. Apart from racial prejudice, the Nazis proceeded from economic considerations. It was expensive to pay for people requiring treatment. This was a tax burden. According to a document found in the Hartheim Euthanasia Centre in Nazi Germany, 70,273 people were killed under the Tiergartenstraße-4 programme by September 1, 1941. An unknown Nazi clerk noted with chilling pragmatism: “Considering that these patients could live for another 10 years, this is a saving of 885,439,800 Reichsmarks in total.”

Is the motivation of neoliberal Ottawa different from that of the Reich? Judge for yourselves.

According to a recent study by Daily Mail, an increasing number of people resort to euthanasia not because they are suffering from an incurable disease but because they are simply homeless (whose upkeep is a burden for the state) or people with diabetes. Last year, physicians approved a suicide of a young man with diabetes simply because he asked them. Later on, the commission dismissed their decision as unfounded.

Considering that the suicide rate is growing, journalists already believe that Canada is the easiest place in the world for parting with life with the help of doctors. This is how the Spectator puts it in its article “Why is Canada euthanising the poor?”: “Since last year, Canadian law, in all its majesty, has allowed both the rich as well as the poor to kill themselves if they are too poor to continue living with dignity. In fact, the ever-generous Canadian state will even pay for their deaths. What it will not do is spend money to allow them to live instead of killing themselves.”

The abhorrent Nazi interpretation of eugenics was reincarnated in neoliberalism and received an official seal of approval in Canadian law. This is what all the progressives are appealing for today.

I’d like to recall a sentence from the Hippocratic Oath: “Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course. Open / Comment