🇷🇺 Interview by Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov to «Izvestia» newspaper

❓In March 2025, a meeting was held in Beijing with the participation of China, Russia and Iran on the Iranian nuclear issue. Later, in April, consultations were held in Moscow, also in a trilateral format. When is the next meeting of representatives of Russia, China and Iran planned, but at an official level, as in Beijing?

💬 The situation around the Iranian nuclear program is developing dynamically, and this may well require another round of consultations between Russia, China and Iran on this issue at the level of deputy heads of the foreign ministries. There is no specific date yet. But the trilateral format is actively functioning in any case - literally today another «comparison of notes» at the level of Permanent Representatives of the three countries to the International Organizations was held in Vienna. There is a need to coordinate steps in anticipation of the session of the IAEA Board of Governors, which is opening on June 9

❓Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Andrey Rudenko stated that Russia is ready to help Iran and the United States reach a consensus on the issue of a possible agreement on nuclear issues that they are discussing. Has there been a request from Tehran or Washington to organize a meeting on this issue in a trilateral format with Moscow's participation?

💬 Indeed, the Russian Federation has repeatedly stated its readiness to assist Iran and the United States in reaching an agreement on nuclear issues. But for this to happen, both Tehran and Washington need to make such a request. So far, there has been no such request

❓Is it possible and under what circumstances to resume cooperation between Russia and the United States in the field of peaceful nuclear energy? Are there any contacts on this issue now?

💬 It should be said that even in the current circumstances, despite the sanctions, certain cooperation between Russia and the United States in the field of peaceful nuclear energy takes place. The Russian side supplies the United States with Russian enriched uranium product, as well as isotope products for medical and industrial purposes

❗️Russian Embassy's Comment on another anti-Russian propaganda story by ABC News

The assumption pushed by the ABC's recent "masterpiece of journalism" is that Mariupol residents are being forced to become Russian citizens.

What a shame that Australia's national public broadcaster relies on biased data and neglects basic fact-checking.

The Presidential Executive Order
No 159 On the Specifics of the Legal Status of Certain Categories of Foreign Citizens and Stateless Persons in the Russian Federation, Amending and Invalidating Certain Presidential Executive Orders (dated March 20, 2025) states:

<…> to protect the rights and freedoms of individuals and citizens, and in accordance with Article 80 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and Article 3 of Federal Law No 115-FZ On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation (dated July 25, 2002), Ukrainian citizens currently residing in the Russian Federation, who lack legal grounds for their stay or residence, must either leave the Russian Federation independently or, by September 10, 2025, regularise their legal status in accordance with Presidential Executive Order No 1126
On Temporary Measures to Regulate the Legal Status of Certain Categories of Foreign Citizens and Stateless Persons in the Russian Federation in Connection with the Implementation of the Expulsion Regime (dated December 30, 2024).

Crimea, Sevastopol, Donetsk People's Republic, Lugansk People's Republic, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions joined the Russian Federation as full-fledged subjects as a result of the referenda held in full conformity with the norms and principles of international law. The residents of these territories, including citizens of Ukraine, have made a conscious and free choice in favour of Russia and, accordingly, must comply with the Russian law.

☝️The requirement for Ukrainian citizens to regularise their legal status by September 10, 2025, only confirms that a special legal regime has been in effect for them for a long time, providing for a whole range of exceptions and concessions. Forcing people to become Russian citizens has never been on the agenda.

The same cannot be said about the criminal case opened in September 2024 by the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation under Section 3 Article 322 of the Russian Criminal Code against US citizen Kathryn Diss, ABC correspondent and author of this piece of anti-Russian propaganda, who had illegally crossed the state border of the Russian Federation in the Kursk region.

✉️ Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s greetings to the organisers and participants of the 10th international conference Russia and China: Cooperation in a New Era

✍️ It is my pleasure to welcome the participants of the 10th international conference Russia and China: Cooperation in a New Era.

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to its organisers – the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). It is through their efforts that this forum has become a respected platform for political analysis, which provides substantial expert support for comprehensive Russian-Chinese cooperation and strategic partnership.

This conference is being held in the year of the 80th Anniversary of the Great Victory. Russia and China cherish the memory of the heroism of our predecessors who took up arms to defend the world from German Nazism and Japanese militarism. Strong evidence of our indissoluble friendship is that President of China Xi Jinping accepted the invitation of President Vladimir Putin to be the main guest at the May 9 celebrations in Moscow that marked the Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War.

The day before, our Leaders held extensive and substantive talks on all items on the bilateral and international agenda. The Russian President reaffirmed his intention to accept the invitation to attend the celebrations of the 80th Anniversary of the Chinese people's Victory over Japanese aggression, which will be held in Beijing on September 3.

Russian-Chinese ties have become a true model of relations between great powers in a multipolar world. They are self-sufficient and resilient to global fluctuations and external influence. We continue to strengthen our trust-based political dialogue, expand our trade and economic cooperation and deepen our cultural and humanitarian contacts.

Moscow and Beijing are firmly committed to the creation of a more just and stable world order. We are working jointly to coordinate the parameters of and conditions for interstate relations in the new era. We reject any manifestations of hegemony, unilateral restrictive measures and other modern practices of neocolonialism. We call for eradicating terrorism, extremism and Nazism in all their forms and manifestations, and we are working to ensure that the goals and principles of the UN Charter are interpreted and applied by all members of the international community in their entirety. Our countries remain committed to the principle of equal and indivisible security and are promoting initiatives for its practical implementation at the global and Eurasian levels.

I am confident that, in line with established tradition, this Russian-Chinese conference will be held in a constructive and forward-looking manner, and that the valuable ideas put forth during your discussions will be applied in the efforts of our executive authorities in effectively implementing the instructions of our Leaders.

I would like to wish you rewarding work and all the best.

#RussiaChina

🎙 Statement by Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Vassily Nebenzia at a UNSC meeting on Ukraine (New York, May 29, 2025)

💬 Vassily Nebenzia: The script of today's meeting is absolutely clear and predictable. Much like previous similar initiatives by our Western and, of late, European colleagues, this meeting is not geared either towards solving problems or bringing the Ukrainian crisis closer to a peaceful settlement. Instead, the goal is to prop up the image of a supposedly free and democratic Ukraine. Thus, Ukraine is portrayed as the victim of alleged “Russian aggression” with the European sponsors of the Kiev regime trying to keep this image afloat, as they began to shape it long before Russia started its special military operation in Ukraine.

It is becoming more and more difficult for London, Paris, Berlin and their satellites to inflate this propaganda “bubble”, since it’s way too obvious now that what they have in Ukraine is nothing but a dictatorship and the Kiev expired princeling would stop at nothing to hold on to power, which he would lose if peace prevails. <...>

Today, yet again in this chamber, they are trying to make us believe that Russia is deliberately shelling residential areas of Ukrainian cities. What they offer as evidence are the consequences of the operation of Ukrainian air defense stationed near homes and social facilities in violation of the basic IHL norms.

At the same time, what is being hushed up is the fact that our strikes target exclusively objects related to Ukraine's military-industrial complex, and we are successfully destroying them or rendering them inoperable. <...>

Another fact that is being hushed up is that Russia is doing what I’ve just mentioned only in response to the massive and targeted shelling of peaceful Russian towns by the Kiev regime. <...>

The plans concocted by Zelensky and his posse are way too plain and clear.

👉 Their task is to trick and mislead American President Donald Trump, who is taking decisive steps toward peace; they are ready to go to any lengths only to return the US – which has already wasted hundreds of billions of dollars helping Ukraine – to an anti-Russian and Russophobic course. <...>

What is also clear and undeniable are peace initiatives and tangible steps on the part of the Russian leadership.

We intend to continue pursuing this course and are willing to proceed with the serious direct negotiations with Ukraine, which Ukraine itself suspended in April 2022 at the instigation of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and like-minded Russophobes. This negotiation process should bring about such a solution that would definitively address the root causes of the Ukrainian conflict and the threats to the security of my country emanating from Ukraine.

The Ukrainian side has been invited to meet in Istanbul on June 2 to discuss the content of our memoranda regarding approaches to the negotiation process.

As long as Kiev tries to prolong the war and provoke Russia by striking at residential and civilian infrastructure in our territory, we will continue our special military operation and we will continue destroying facilities having to do with the Kiev regime's military capabilities. And neither new anti-Russian sanctions, nor arms supplies to Ukraine, nor other hostile steps vis-a-vis Russia will be able to prevent the inevitable military defeat of the Zelensky regime.

❗️ The ball is in Ukraine’s court: either talks followed by peace or imminent defeat on the battlefield with different conditions for ending the conflict.

Read in full

🇷🇺🇻🇳 On May 29, Russian-Vietnamese inter-agency consultations on ensuring biological safety and security took place in Hanoi.

The two Sides exchanged views on biological safety and security in the Asia-Pacific Region as well as globally. The issues of developing bilateral cooperation in the field of biological safety and security and strengthening the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (#BTWC) regime were discussed.

🤝 The two Sides noted the need for continued consultations and cooperation both bilaterally and within relevant multilateral fora, primarily within the framework of the BTWC and the UN.

#RussiaVietnam

📻 Interview of Russia’s Ambassador to Norway Nikolay Korchunov to BBC 4 «Today» Radio Program (May 22, 2025)

Key points:

• The policy and activities of the Russian Federation in the Arctic are carried out in accordance with the Strategy for Developing the Russian Arctic Zone and Ensuring National Security until 2035 and the Concept of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation, which aim at finding solutions to common challenges – contribute to sustainable development of the region, preserve the fragile nature of the Arctic and ensure well-being of all people living in the High North including Indigenous Peoples.

• The key task is to preserve the Arctic as the territory of peace, stability and mutually beneficial cooperation based on the principles of equality and mutual benefit, maintaining pragmatic dialogue on the Arctic agenda, including within the Arctic Council.

• Arctic states bear special responsibility for the region. Many pending problems in the Arctic need joint efforts. Climate change, permafrost degradation, loss of biodiversity, natural or man-made disasters, wildfires, well-being of Indigenous Peoples require common solutions within the framework of existing intergovernmental formats and for the sake of developing international science.

• Growing activities of NATO in the Arctic are not contributing to resolving multiple challenges this region is facing, such as climate change, biodiversity degradation, pollution, frozen scientific cooperation. NATO's presence only escalates tension without tackling any of these challenges.

• Anti-Russian agenda of Western countries, which is supported by Norway, undermines a long history of peaceful relations and mutually beneficial cooperation between our nations and contributes to the growing risks and threats in the Arctic region. However, the reality is that Russia and Norway are «doomed» to cooperate. We are neighbors and I hope that sooner or later common sense would prevail.

Listen to the interview

🎙 Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s answer to a media question regarding statements by Foreign Minister of Türkiye Hakan Fidan and the U.S. President's Special Envoy Keith Kellogg on direct Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul

❓ Question: What would be your comment regarding statements by Foreign Minister of Türkiye Hakan Fidan and the U.S. President's Special Envoy Keith Kellogg about their respective positions on the direct Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul on June 2 and plans by officials from the United States, the UK, Germany and France to visit this city on this day?

💬 Maria Zakharova: We have seen reports quoting Foreign Minister of Türkiye Hakan Fidan. As far as we can see, he talked about going with a more flexible approach as suggested by Russia in the context of the upcoming talks in order to prevent Russia from finding itself at disadvantage.

We have also taken note of Keith Kellogg’s remarks on the possible presence in Istanbul on June 2 of officials from the countries you have mentioned for holding quadrilateral discussions of some sort on Russia-Ukraine talks. There was also speculation against the backdrop of Hakan Fidan’s current visit to Kiev alleging that Türkiye was unable to exercise its mediating role all by itself and needed someone to assist it in its efforts.

❗️ If we are talking about Russia’s position on this matter, we would like to note that the initiative as set forth by President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and supported by President of the United States Donald Trump provides for launching direct bilateral Russia-Ukraine talks. As you know, these talks resumed in Istanbul on May 16 after a three-year pause.

Of course, we are very grateful to our Turkish friends for their hospitality and creating the necessary working conditions as the hosts of this negotiating venue. However, we are not talking about Türkiye or anyone else playing any mediating role in this process.

☝️ We can confirm that the Russian delegation with Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky at its head will be in Istanbul on June 2 for holding the second round of talks as described above. This delegation will bring along a draft memorandum and other proposals regarding a ceasefire.

As for what Special Envoy Keith Kellogg said, being a democratic country which adheres to the rule of law, Russia respects the universal principle of the freedom of movement as a fundamental human right. Anyone is free to travel where he or she desires. That said, we cannot see in what way the movements by officials from the four countries you have mentioned in your question relate to the bilateral talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul.

🇺🇳 The resumed second session of the United Nations Habitat Assembly was held in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 29-30.  An interagency delegation from Russia took part in it.

Following elections to the Executive Board, Russia was re-elected to this governing body for 2025-2029 by acclamation.

The Board includes 36 UN Member States and coordinates operational activities of the Programme between sessions of the Assembly which convene once every four years. Since the establishment of UN-Habitat in 1977, Russia has consistently served on its governing bodies making a constructive contribution to its efforts in support of sustainable urban development.

📰 Interview with Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova for 'Zapiski Sledovatelya' Journal No. 2/2025, published by Russia's Investigative Committee (May 30, 2025)

✍️ The Legal Front of Memory

Key talking points:

• Combating manifestations of racism, xenophobia, aggressive nationalism and neo-Nazism, and countering attempts to rewrite history and distort the outcomes of #WWII are among Russia’s priorities on the human rights track.

• Today we see increasingly frequent attempts to rewrite the history and results of WWII, to erase the memory of heroic anti-fascist fighters, to destroy monuments built in their honour, and to ban the wearing of military decorations that are strongly associated with Victory.

• History is being falsified in an openly hostile manner, which includes glorifying Nazi collaborators and disrespecting the memory of Soviet soldiers and civilians who died in the fight against fascism, questioning the Red Army’s liberation mission in Eastern Europe <...> The decisions of the Yalta and Potsdam conferences and the Nuremberg Tribunal verdicts are also being questioned.

• This tendency to rewrite history and glorify Nazi henchmen has become part of the Kiev regime’s state ideology and policy. The neo-Nazi elites are trying to cement Ukraine’s independence by denying its Soviet past, praising the Waffen-SS Galicia Division <...>

• In line with efforts to combat the glorification of Nazism and the distortion of history, every year since 2005, Russia has submitted a resolution on combatting glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, to the UN General Assembly. On December 17, 2024, during the plenary session of the 79th #UNGA in New York, 119 countries voted in support of this document.

• Russia and a group of like-minded countries submitted a draft resolution on the 80th Anniversary of the end of World War II to the ongoing 79th UN General Assembly, which was adopted on March 4. <...> Our partners’ unified stance on this matter constitutes a substantive contribution to countering the rewriting of history.

• It is a matter of principle for us that the international community recognise the crimes perpetrated by the Nazis in the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War as the genocide of the Soviet people.

• The actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and Nazi-affiliated armed groups reveal signs of genocidal intent. They wanted to eliminate Russians and Russian speakers in #Donbass <...>, adepts of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and people in this region in general as an ethnic, religious and national entity.

• Ukraine initiated proceedings in the UN International Court of Justice in February 2022, right after the start of the special military operation, as per the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. However, it turned to the Kiev regime’s disadvantage.

• The International Court of Justice issued its preliminary objections under this case on February 2, 2024. In this document, it rejected all the claims made by Ukraine alleging that Russia violated the Convention. The court went on to rule that further proceedings will focus on whether Ukraine itself committed acts of genocide in Donbass. Therefore, the Kiev regime filed the lawsuit only to become a defendant in this case.

• On November 18, 2024, Russia submitted its main pleading document, the Counter-Memorial, as part of these proceedings. In fact, this is the first time since the Nuremberg Trials that Russia de facto assumed the role of the prosecution in an international tribunal. But there are even more parallels with the Nuremberg Trials — just as during these trials, we are dealing with a Nazi regime which was targeting civilians with mass atrocities on racial, ethnic and national grounds.

Read the interview in full

🎙 Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at a UN Security Council Briefing on Western Arms Supplies to Ukraine (New York, May 30, 2025)

💬 Vassily Nebenzia: The “expired” Ukrainian president does not want to stop hostilities because he is afraid of losing his grip on power — after all, he will have to hold elections and answer to the voters for what he has turned Ukraine into over the past 6 years, he will also have to account for the hundreds of billions of dollars of budget funds and Western (primarily American) aid that he has embezzled.

European warmongers are not interested in stopping hostilities either. They have been implementing their “anti-Russia” project in Ukraine since at least 2014, and they are not ready to give up on it and allow the cessation of hostilities until Russia is defeated or at least bled dry.

Having lost millions of its citizens, it is Ukraine that is on the verge of total defeat today; therefore, the European sponsors of “private military company Ukraine” order Zelensky and his clique to continue fighting until the last Ukrainian, which compels the Kiev regime to capture the last Ukrainian men in the streets and throw them into the senseless meat grinder.

***

Our Armed Forces stand ready to continue and step up their combat activities for as long as it may take. Just look at any military reports, even those that are most biased vis-a-vis Russia – they clearly show that Russian troops are successfully making headway along virtually the entire front line.

Russia's Ministry of Defense provides information about the liberation of various settlements and destruction of foreign-supplied equipment.

☝️ Despite all this, we have always emphasized that we are committed to a political and diplomatic settlement of the crisis.

***

It is fundamentally important for us that the root causes of the conflict be addressed once and for all.

2014 witnessed an unconstitutional coup d'état in Ukraine, which was supported and sponsored by the US and the EU. That coup brought to power a new regime that set out to destroy all things Russian. For all these years, it has trampled on the rights of the people in the east and the south of Ukraine.

We cannot and will not stand idly by and watch as millions of Russian-speaking people remain under the regime pursuing the policies that flagrantly violate their fundamental rights and freedoms.

If the neo-Nazi authorities in Kiev believe that they can achieve a cessation of hostilities while maintaining institutionalized oppression and discrimination vis-a-vis a significant portion of the population in the rest of Ukraine, they are deeply mistaken.

Read in full

🎙 Briefing by Russia's Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (Moscow, May 27, 2025)

🔹 Ukraine crisis
🔹 Kiev regime crimes
🔹 Norway’s aggressive war preparations
🔹 Narrow Waters – 25 Navy exercises in Finland
🔹 US missile defence system Golden Dome
🔹 Sanctions pressure on Russia
🔹 Crimes against the Soviet memorial legacy in the EU
🔹 West's crimes in Afghanistan
🔹 The 70th anniversary of the Baikonur Cosmodrome

📰 Read
📺 Watch

***

#KievRegimeCrimes

❗️ The Kiev regime has significantly intensified terrorist attacks against civilians. Apparently, emboldened by Western fantasies about militarisation, the regime now feels completely unrestrained. These terrorist attacks target civilian infrastructure across multiple Russian regions, including Moscow.

Between May 20-25, at least 15 civilians were injured by dozens of strikes and drone attacks across the Belgorod Region.

In the Kursk Region, on May 22, a 50-year-old civilian was killed and four others injured by Ukrainian Armed Forces strikes and drone attacks on populated areas. <...> On May 23, militants from the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked the town of Lgov using HIMARS rocket launchers, injuring 16 people, including two children, and damaging 64 single-family homes, 28 flats in three buildings, and two shops.

Since May 20, relentless shelling of communities in the Kherson Region has led to one civilian death, and at least 10 people have been wounded, including a 19-year-old girl.

In total, according to the Investigative Committee, since the start of the special military operation, 43 Russian regions have come under attack with over 8'000 shelling incidents in border areas and deeper into our country’s territory.

#Afghanistan

Western governments have been seeking to sweep under the carpet efforts by the courts to investigate crimes dating back to the time when Afghanistan was under occupation, despite all the pressure they face from the civil society.

Only one out of 19 Australian soldiers whose names appeared in an investigation into the killings of Afghans, including civilians, was indicted. As for the UK, where there has been a lot of reporting lately about these monstrous crimes, there has been hardly any progress in investigating these cases.

We welcome the fact that human rights activists are becoming increasingly vocal in requesting retribution against the Western military for the crimes they committed during Afghanistan’s occupation so that all the perpetrators are held to account.

#Finland #NATO

Navy ships and service personnel from Germany, Sweden and Estonia are taking part in the Narrow Waters – 25 Navy exercise in Finland. <...> The manoeuvres include performing wartime tasks.

This means that an ordinary Navy exercise, which used to be held at a national level without any foreign military forces, has suddenly evolved into yet another means of escalation at NATO’s disposal along the Russian border, and the Finnish authorities offered their full-throttle support to this initiative.

#RussiaAfrica

🌍 In 2023 and 2024, we opened our embassies in Burkina Faso and Equatorial Guinea. In December 2024, the Russian Government adopted resolutions on reopening our embassies in Niger and Sierra Leone and opening an embassy in South Sudan. These efforts have recently moved into the implementation phase. Future plans include opening embassies in Gambia, Togo and the Union of the Comoros.

The expansion of Russian diplomatic presence in Africa will not only promote trade, economic and investment ties but will also help strengthen our political and humanitarian cooperation.