Russian MFA 🇷🇺

2024-04-10 09:00:53 On April 10, 1944, exactly years ago, the forces of the Third Ukrainian Front under the command of Army General Rodion Malinovsky ousted Nazi German and Romanian invaders from Odessa.

The Nazi occupation of the city lasted 907 days. During this period, approximately 200,000 people died in Odessa and in the region. Many of them fell victim to mass bloody massacres and brutal executions. About 78,000 people were deported to Germany for forced labour; plants and factories were destroyed; and over 2,000 buildings, including hospitals and schools, were blown up or burned down.

During their retreat, German and Romanian troops shot at ordinary people, including the elderly, women and children and mined the most important buildings, plants, the power station and the seaport.

The Red Army inflicted a crushing defeat on the enemy with over 27,000 soldiers and officers killed and more than 11,000 taken prisoner. The enemy also lost 952 artillery pieces, 443 tanks and assault guns, and 97 ammunition and food depots.

The liberation of Odessa by the Red Army disrupted supplies to the German army group in Crimea and opened the way to an offensive towards the Balkans.

During the entire period of occupation, local citizens resisted the Nazis. After the city was captured, they went into catacombs. During the war, Odessa underground fighters and partisans destroyed over 5,000 enemy soldiers and officers, 248 motor vehicles, and saved about 20,000 Soviet citizens from being forcibly exported to Germany.

In honour of the liberation of Odessa, 324 artillery pieces made 24 salvoes in Moscow.

The honorable title of Odessa units was conferred on 27 formations and units that distinguished themselves during the operation. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to 14 people and over 2,000 people received Soviet orders and medals.

On May 8, 1965, Odessa was officially declared Hero City.

#Victory79 Open / Comment

2024-04-05 10:32:03 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.

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2024-03-05 12:01:22 Aide to the President of Russia for Foreign Policy Yuri Ushakov's interview with TASS (March 5, 2024)

Key talking points:

Cooperation within #BRICS is undoubtedly one of the key features of Russia's long-term foreign policy.

• Russia, as the current president of the organization, has a special responsibility to ensure the fastest and smoothest integration of the new members into the operation of all BRICS mechanisms. This is undoubtedly a cornerstone and high priority task of our Presidency.

• In the relatively short period of its existence, the BRICS association has rapidly developed and transformed into an extensive multi-level mechanism of interaction on a wide range of issues on the global agenda.

Many perceive BRICS as a prototype of multipolarity, a structure uniting the Global South and East on the principles of equality, sovereignty and mutual respect.

• Support for the principles of multipolarity and a greater role of developing countries in global governance, as well as the fundamental values of the BRICS group, such as the spirit of equality, mutual respect, openness, inclusiveness and constructive cooperation, is an indispensable condition [for joining BRICS].

• We see increasing the role of BRICS counties in the international currency and financial system as a specific task for this year. <...> We believe that creating an independent BRICS payment system is an important goal for the future.

• There has never been a military aspect to cooperation within our group. <...> BRICS does not have plans to build such cooperation, including military drills.

Russia has never set BRICS in opposition to other international platforms, be it the Group of 20 or the Group of Seven. We believe that the association is unique.

• The recipe for BRICS’ attractiveness and success is based on the absence of a confrontational or “hidden” agenda. I will repeat that it brings together like-minded countries.

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2024-01-21 22:12:05 The neo-Nazi regime in Kiev, supported by the United States and its satellites, has committed yet another brutal terrorist act against the civilian population of Russia.

On the morning of January 21, armed units of Bandera’s followers [Stephan Bandera - a Hitlerite crony & WWII war criminal, the idol of the Ukranian neo-Nazis & nationalists aka the banderovites] deliberately targeted a market and shops in Tekstilshchik, a neighbourhood in the Kirovsky District of Donetsk. A total of six artillery rounds were fired at the busiest areas in town causing a large number of casualties. According to reports, at least 27 people were killed and 25 were injured.

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It was established that the shelling was coming from Avdeyevka, which is still controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and that the types of weapons supplied by the West were used. This is further confirmation of the Western countries’ direct involvement in the conflict, implicating them in the criminal acts committed by the Zelensky regime.

Russia strongly condemns this treacherous attack on civilians. The West’s unrestrained desire to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia using their Ukrainian puppets to do the fighting, thoughtlessly supporting them without any limits, is pushing the Kiev regime to increasingly reckless steps, including terrorist attacks, massive violations of international humanitarian law and war crimes.

Russia calls on all responsible governments and relevant international agencies to strongly condemn this brutal act of terrorism. Their silence would mean tacit approval of the murder of civilians and encourage Ukrainian neo-Nazis to commit even more terrible atrocities.

The terrorist attacks by the Kiev regime clearly demonstrate that it has no political will for peace and the settlement of the conflict by diplomatic means. No threats to security or acts of terrorism must be coming from the territory of Ukraine.

RIA NOVOSTI Open / Comment

2023-11-22 23:55:50 Russia's President Vladimir Putin took part in the extraordinary G20 summit, held via videoconference.

Vladimir Putin: The state of affairs in the global economy and the world at large require collective, consensus-based decisions that reflect the views of the overwhelming majority of the international community, including both developed and developing countries. <...>

The enormous stress on the global economy is a direct consequence of the ill-considered macroeconomic policies of some countries. <...>

Unlawful trade restrictions and the climate agenda pursued by some countries in order to improve their own competitiveness, continue to have a negative impact. <...>

Russia advocates restoring the spirit of open and mutually beneficial international economic cooperation based on the UN Charter and the principles of collegial and mutually respectful joint work.

It is important to achieve an effective optimisation of the global economic governance system, in particular, to restart the WTO in its entirety, including its arbitration function.

We need to enhance the role of developing economies in international financial institutions, including the IMF and the World Bank, and to use those bodies’ resources to promote the development of countries and regions that really need it, and not for opportunistic political purposes.

We are ready to work together to address these urgent issues at the G20 and other international institutions, including BRICS, an association that is gaining weight and influence – this much is obvious, especially considering its ongoing expansion.

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2023-11-17 06:11:35 Open / Comment

2023-11-09 13:41:13 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s answers to questions for the Moscow. Kremlin. Putin programme (Astana, November 9, 2023)

Question: Will you comment on the recent report according to which the US President “believes that Ukraine can win back its territory?”

Sergey Lavrov: Blessed is he who believes, as the saying goes.

Question: President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky has promised to launch a new counteroffensive this winter or next spring. However, the White House has announced that US funds for Ukraine are over 90 percent depleted.

Sergey Lavrov: It is very difficult to comment on what Zelensky says. He has also said that he would continue fighting alone even without any assistance.

There is nothing I can say on this issue. Everything is clear. Open / Comment

2023-11-06 09:00:00 On November 6, 1943, the Red Army and its forces under the command of Army General Nikolai Vatutin liberated Kiev from the Nazi invaders.

The capital of Soviet Ukraine had been under Nazi occupation for 778 days.

In Kiev the Nazis used a tactic of mass terror. More than 120,000 people were executed in Babi Yar alone. About 100,000 Kievans were deported to Germany for hard labour. By November 1943, the city’s population shrank to 180,000 people – all that was left from nearly a million residents in pre-war years.

Kiev suffered widespread damage over its time under Nazi occupation. The Assumption Cathedral of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra was destroyed, as were the public library, the conservatory, the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, and the city’s zoological museum. Kiev lost all of its bridges, overpasses, most medical institutions, 140 schools, 940 buildings that housed state and public institutions, over 800 industrial facilities, 1,742 blocks of flats, and 3,600 private residences.

Soviet forces showed courage and heroism en masse during the Battle for Kiev; 65 Red Army units were awarded the honorary designation ‘Kiev.’ More than 17,500 soldiers and officers were decorated with orders and medals, and 2,438 servicemen were awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union title for crossing the Dnieper and liberating Kiev.

The liberation of Kiev was more than just a strategic success of the Red Army and a major milestone on the way to expelling the Germans from the Ukrainian SSR, and reaching the border with Romania and Poland. It was a huge moral victory of the Soviet people over the Nazi invaders. Open / Comment

2023-11-04 11:40:01 #OTD in 1612, the people’s volunteer army led by Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, liberated Moscow from Polish-Lithuanian invaders.

Therefore, #NationalUnityDay (introduced by the executive order of the President of Russia in December 2004) has been celebrated all over our country every year since 2005.

The holiday has deep historical roots. It was celebrated from 1613 until 1917, and was established by the first tsar of the Romanov dynasty Michael to honour the icon of Our Lady of Kazan, which accompanied the liberators of Moscow.

A monument to citizen Minin and Prince Pozharsky by sculptor Ivan Martos was erected on Red Square on the order of Emperor Alexander I in 1818 to honour the memory of patriots who led the fight for national liberation.

On November 4, 2005, a copy of this monument, executed by Zurab Tsereteli and gifted by Moscow City Hall, was unveiled in Nizhny Novgorod, a city that played a crucial role in creating the volunteer army.

Vladimir Putin: The history of our country is continuous, a constant stream. We must consider it in its entirety, with all its extremely complicated and even controversial periods. For the state, the authorities, society and its citizens, it is crucial to have objective, complete knowledge of our past, both the distant past and the near and recent past. Everything here matters, especially today.

Learn more about the heroism of true patriots of the Motherland in this in-depth historical retrospect.

#UnityDay2023 Open / Comment

2023-03-07 10:15:28 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at a meeting of Russia-the Islamic World GSV with ambassadors from the OIC Member States (Moscow, March 6, 2023)

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As Eurasia’s largest country and a state-civilisation, Russia maintains good, honest and mutually respectful relations with the countries of the Islamic world; the continuing strengthening of these relations is among the unwavering priorities of Russia’s foreign policy.

We are united by a commitment to the cultural and civilisational diversity of the peoples of the world and their right to determine their own paths for political and socioeconomic development.

In conjunction with our friends from the Muslim states, we stand for building a more just and democratic multipolar world order based on UN Charter principles. We reject the ultra-liberal values that are being aggressively imposed on everyone by the collective West.

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Russia-Islamic World Group of Strategic Vision was created in 2006 and is the core mechanism underlying our dialogue and our efforts to promote promising and mutually beneficial projects. It is now led by Head of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov.

Over the past years, various useful initiatives designed to help strengthen the atmosphere of friendship, trust and mutual understanding between our countries and peoples have been launched as part of this group. Open / Comment