🌍🤗 Russia's Sochi is ready for the First Ministerial Conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, which kicks off tomorrow!

🤝 Meanwhile Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has already been hard at work, holding talks and meetings with 9 heads of delegations of the African nations!

🎙 Highlights from President Vladimir Putin's speech at the plenary session of the 21st annual meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi.

• The peril lies in the imposition of totalitarian ideologies and making them the norm, as exemplified by the current state of Western liberalism. This modern Western liberalism, in my view, has degenerated into extreme intolerance and aggression towards any alternative or sovereign and independent thought. Today, it even seeks to justify neo-Nazism, terrorism, racism, and even the mass genocide of civilians.

• The West made an unprecedented attempt to banish Russia from global affairs and from the international economic and political systems. The number of sanctions and punitive measures applied against our country has no analogues in history. Our opponents assumed that they would inflict a crushing defeat, dealing a knockout blow to Russia from which it would never recover. There is no need to remind you of what really happened.

❗️ The truth is the world needs Russia, and no decisions made by any individuals in Washington or Brussels who believe others should take their orders can change this.

• By distorting the results of the Cold War to suit their interests and reshaping the world according to their ideas, the West displayed flagrant and unprecedented geopolitical greed. These are the real origins of the conflicts in our historical era, beginning with the tragedies in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, and now Ukraine and the Middle East.

• Today we are witnessing a conflict between the overwhelming majority of the global population, which wants to live and develop in an interconnected world with a great deal of opportunities, and the global minority, whose only concern, as I have said, is the preservation of its domination.

• The bloc policy and the legacy of the Cold War colonial era run contrary to the essence of the new international system, which is open and flexible. There is only one bloc in the world that is held together by the so-called obligations and strict ideological dogmas and cliches. It is NATO, which continues expansion to Eastern Europe and is now trying to spread its approaches to other parts of the world.

• Our country has never been the one to initiate the use of force: we are forced to do that only when it becomes clear that our opponent is acting aggressively and is not willing to listen to any type of argument. And whenever necessary, we will take any measure we need to protect Russia and all its citizens.

• Once again some have come to believe that the world would be better off without Russia. They think that this would make the world more obedient and pliant. However, Russia stopped those aspiring to global dominance in their tracks many times over, no matter who it was. <...> Russia’s very existence guarantees that the world will retain its diversity and complexity, which is the key to successful development.

☝️ Everyone should be clear that putting pressure on us is useless, but we are always prepared to sit down and talk based on consideration of our mutual legitimate interests in their entirety. This is something that we urge all international dialogue members to do.

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📑 The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation has compiled and issued a Report regarding the Situation with the Glorification of Nazism and the Spread of Neo-Nazism and Other Practices That Contribute to Fuelling Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance

Read in full (pdf)

The report continues the efforts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation to draw attention to the manifestations of various forms of glorification of the Nazi movement, neo-Nazism, racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in foreign countries.

The document reflects the line of Western countries aimed at fomenting rabid Russophobia. which has become one of the "manifestations" of their support for Ukraine against the background <...> Considerable attention is also paid to the actions of certain States, primarily the Baltic States, Poland and Ukraine, which <...> actively continue to destroy on their territory the entire array of Soviet and Russian, and often their own, memorial heritage and step up their activities to falsify the history of World War II.

🔻 The West is openly and unceremoniously changing historical concepts – from equating the Nazi regime with the "totalitarian" Soviet one to attempting to place all responsibility for the war on the Soviet Union and declare it "a criminal worse than the Third Reich".

🔻 The meaning and, most importantly, the essence of the verdict of the International Military Tribunal for the trial and punishment of major war criminals of the European Axis countries (the Nuremberg Tribunal) is being deliberately blurred.

🔻 The political elites of the overwhelming majority of European and North American "democratic" states are trying their best to conceal from the international community, including their own citizens, the Nazi essence of the policy of the Kiev and similar regimes.

The absolute majority of members of the international community share Russia's approaches to the glorification of Nazism and the justification of racism.

In 2023, the Russian resolution was supported by the majority of the world's countries – 1️⃣1️⃣8️⃣. 49 delegations voted against it, including the United States and Ukraine, as well as EU member states.

The manifestations of racial discrimination and glorification of Nazism pose a direct threat to the fundamental values of true democracy and human rights and a serious challenge to international and regional security and stability. <...>

☝️ Russia, together with like-minded countries, does not intend to tolerate such racist and neo-colonial approaches and will oppose them in every possible way.

💬 President Vladimir Putin: If neutrality is not achieved, it is difficult to imagine any kind of good neighbourly relations between Russia and Ukraine.

Why? Because without neutrality, Ukraine will continue to be used as a tool in foreign hands, working against the interests of the Russian Federation. This would prevent the creation of the basic conditions needed to normalise relations, and the situation will become unpredictable. We would very much like to avoid that.

On the contrary, we are committed to creating conditions for a long-term resolution, so that Ukraine can ultimately become an independent, sovereign state – not a tool in the hands of third countries that is used for their interests. <...>

We are ready for peace talks, but not on the basis of ever-changing demands that shift from month to month. We are ready to negotiate based on current realities and the agreements reached in Istanbul – grounded in today’s reality.

☝️ But this is not about a temporary truce for half an hour or six months to allow them to stock up on ammunition. It is about creating favourable conditions for restoring future relations and cooperation between two nations that are undoubtedly brotherly, no matter how strained things are by today’s rhetoric and the tragic events between Russia and Ukraine.

So our position is clear and consistent. We will continue to act and move in this direction.

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🗓 On November 9-10, Sochi hosted the First Ministerial Conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum at Sirius University.

Instituted by a decision of the Second Russia-Africa Summit in St Petersburg in July 2023, this new dialogue format is called on to become a certain coordinating mechanism for implementing objectives set by the heads of state and government.

Along with heads of foreign ministries and executive structures of integration associations, the event brought together sectoral ministers as well as representatives of parliamentary, public, academic and business circles of Russia and African countries, with over 1,500 people attended the event.

🌐 Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov chaired a plenary session, the conference’s high-priority event that involved 54 heads of official delegations from African states and regional integration associations. At the beginning of the plenary session, they read out greetings from the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and Chair of the African Union – President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani.

The Ministers coordinated their positions on key issues of the international agenda as well as the Russian-African agenda, prioritising the implementation of the Action Plan of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum for 2023-2026. Also, they specified and coordinated long-term guidelines for expanding mutual collaboration still further.

📄 Four joint statements formalised common approaches towards addressing global problems and expanding cooperation with a focus on quality preparations for the Third Russia-Africa Summit:

👉 political statement,
👉 on international information security,
👉 on counter-terrorism measures,
👉 on peaceful use of outer space.

The conference’s packed business programme, including 20 panel sessions and specialised events, provided an additional impetus for diverse mutually beneficial cooperation. Experts and high-ranking guests discussed various high-priority issues in great detail, including food security and collaboration in the agro-industrial sector, training specialists for the real economy, geological prospecting, digitalisation, and cooperation in education, healthcare and youth policy. Representatives of the Eurasian Economic Commission and various African associations discussed mutual integration issues.

Elaborating on the provisions of the Declaration of the Second Russia-Africa Summit, the sides held specialised meetings on international information security, counter-terrorism efforts, and the prevention of an arms race in outer space. Representatives of Russian and African media outlets took part in an event on measures to combat the manifestations of neo-colonialism. 

🤝 Sergey Lavrov met separately with a majority of African delegations on the sidelines of the conference.

✍️ The Officials signed an extensive package of memorandums and agreements between Russia and a number of African states.

#RussiaAfrica

💬 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov: The West's aim is straightforward: to obstruct the rise of any potential competitors.

The West can seize upon any pretext for its aggressive actions and sanction wars, be it the special military operation or the manoeuvres conducted by China in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.

The West employs any justification to attempt to penalise a nation that emerges as a genuine competitor.

China has indeed become such a competitor in the economic sphere, surpassing the United States in the efficiency of its foreign economic activities. Moreover, it is excelling on the "pitch" that the US itself established under the banner of globalisation, where American-set rules are still in play. However, these rules are increasingly being altered retroactively by the US.

They have obstructed the functioning of the WTO because should the plethora of disputes raised by China be adjudicated, the outcomes would unequivocally favour China.

Washington has also stalled the IMF reform and continues to deny the BRICS nations and other countries of the Global South and East a greater voting power that reflects their true economic weight on the global stage. Instead, the Americans unjustly retain their 17.4 percent quota, thereby preserving their veto power.

In other domains, such as security and nuclear deterrence, Russia stands as a formidable competitor to the US on the international stage. Moreover, it is a competitor to Washington in matters of justice and adherence to international law. We advocate strict compliance with the UN Charter, whereas Washington insists that everyone adhere to a "rules-based world order." <...>

☝️ This injustice, the West’s obsession with keeping its slipping dominance intact by any means while turning a blind eye to the unconscionable crimes committed by the Kiev regime, is becoming increasingly clear. The Global Majority sympathises with justice and international law.

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📄 On 11 November the UN General Assembly Third Committee approved by a large majority the resolution "Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance".

The document, co-authored by Russia, condemns trends that are cause for concern in many countries around the world, including in the United Kingdom.

Among them are the rise of skinhead groups, racist and xenophobic violence, antisemitism, Holocaust denial and Islamophobia. The importance of commemorating victims of slavery and slave trade is also acknowledged.

The vote, symbolically, took place on Armistice Day. Yet, the UK delegation voted against the resolution.

Given the many sacrifices of the British people in the defeat of Nazism in 1945, as well as the clear stance taken by the UK Government against recent manifestations of far-right extremism, this is bewildering.

A grim, yet legitimate question is whether London’s decisions on such profound issues are now driven by fleeting considerations of geopolitical expediency rather than basic principles of human morality.

❓ Can the UK Government still tell right from wrong?

💬 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov: The West is using an unprecedented disinformation campaign as an integral part of the hybrid war it is waging against Russia and all independent states.

Digital tools enable the perpetrators to falsify history, demonise opponents, substitute concepts and manipulate facts in various ways.

On the one hand, information has never been so accessible; on the other hand, it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between truth and lies.

To effectively respond to this challenge, states that reject aggressive and malicious interference in the international and national information landscape must combine their efforts.

It is important to bolster technological sovereignty while ensuring that the current algorithms for using the internet cannot be manipulated from the outside.

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🎙 Excerpt from Russian MFA Spox Maria Zakharova's weekly briefing on topical foreign policy issues (13 November 2024)

White Helmets' "work" in Syria

💬 The West refers to the White Helmets as a humanitarian organisation, while it is essentially part and parcel of the US intelligence agencies serving them as a vehicle for their overseas operations, including criminal activity.

On October 25, 2024, the UK Foreign Office marked the tenth anniversary of the White Helmets NGO by issuing a lengthy statement commending this entity.

This is happening after everything the White Helmets did in Syria. They used the suffering of the people of Syria as a cheap, albeit bloody, publicity stunt and made working with terrorists their hallmark.

🤦 London is not even trying to conceal its support for these undercover fighters and has commended the "tremendous efforts and courage" of this "humanitarian organisation".

Every time there was a staged provocation involving chemical weapons in Syria, including the tragic incident in Douma, the White Helmets coordinated them in advance and in a proactive manner with British intelligence. In their efforts, they target their domestic audience, as well as the international information space. <...>

Unfortunately, the White Helmets still engage in subversive activity in Syria while benefiting from their sponsors, primarily the British and American taxpayers.

The UK has not stopped sponsoring this organisation even after its curators decided to get rid of its leader, former British Army officer James Le Mesurier. He became an inconvenience for them and died under mysterious circumstances.

According to official records alone, in 2022−2023, London allocated almost £3 million pounds to the White Helmets, and it is anybody's guess how much they received in unreported cash or through informal channels.

❌ The White Helmets remain a major destabilising factor in Syria. Their removal from Syrian territory, cessation of their activities and exposure of their past crimes are essential for achieving stability in Syria, a country that has suffered so much, and in the region as a whole.

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#Opinion

Excerpts from Professor Jeffrey Sachs's speech

📍Cambridge University, October 22, 2024

💬 We are not in any intrinsic war between the US and Russia. And Russia, by the way, despite every single thing that said every single day TRULY does not want more land. It's already 11 time zones. The last thing that they need or want is more land.

The war is about completely different things than everything you and I read about in our [Western] newspapers every day, because our newspapers are telling us stories that ultimately come back to narratives conceived in the US Defense Department and the CIA, and that are completely bogus.

***

The United States? We've never been at peace. All we do is war. And you know what the truth is? We learned it from here (the UK).

Because the British Empire was the most militarized society imaginable.

And unfortunately, the leaders of this country [the UK], and it turns out not to matter which party, because Starmer is as bad as Boris Johnson, all they know is military. It's unbelievable.

What's the first thing that Starmer does when he becomes prime minister? He goes to Kiev to pledge the endless support of the US, by the way, because Britain doesn't do anything. The endless support of the United States to the defeat of Russia. And then he flies across the Atlantic to try to convince Biden to authorize, and authorize means is for the US military to enable deep strikes inside Russia.

That's really a clever (NOT!) thing to do, especially because Putin said, well, then we'd be at war with each other and we'd be forced to reconsider our nuclear strategy. <...> He's not bluffing if Russia is fundamentally threatened.

***

👉 We [the US] provoked the war in Ukraine. We provoked the war in Ukraine, absolutely surely. And we'll do the same with Taiwan and we'll lose any war that happens, but maybe the world will end also over this stupidity and the people in Washington are stupid, I'm telling you. I know them.

🗓 16 ноября сотрудники консульского отдела Посольства России провели в Манчестере очередное выездное обслуживание российских граждан.

Во время сессии более ста соотечественников получили возможность воспользоваться широким спектром консульских услуг – оформить паспорта, гражданство несовершеннолетним детям, доверенности и другие нотариально заверенные документы, визы для родственников-иностранцев, а также акты о личной явке.

В ходе мероприятия сотрудниками давались подробные консультации по различным аспектам пребывания российских граждан в Великобритании.

Традиционно особое внимание было уделено инвалидам, пенсионерам и многодетным семьям.

Консульское обслуживание прошло плодотворно. Соотечественники выражали благодарность за оказанное содействие и помощь. Это подтверждает востребованность и полезность подобных мероприятий.

☝️ Продолжим наращивать практику консульских выездов в различные регионы Соединённого Королевства в целях обеспечения максимально широкого доступа российских граждан к консульским услугам.

🎙 Statement by Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzia at a UNSC Briefing on Ukraine (New York, 18 November 2024)

Key talking points:

🔹 It is symbolic that it is our British colleagues, who are presiding over the Security Council this month, who pushed through today's meeting, timing it to coincide with the 1,000 days since the Ukrainian crisis reached the hot phase. Once again, we have had a wonderful opportunity to see that for you and your colleagues, Mr Foreign Secretary, this briefing is nothing but a flashy media event to vilify Russia and pin on it some hackneyed labels that predictably abounded in the statements by the Western members of the Council.

🔹 While preparing for today's meeting, Mr Lammy missed another media occasion that has much more importance in the context of the Ukrainian crisis than the date you chose. Last Friday, November 15, marked exactly 950 days since the visit of former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to Kiev. That day he dissuaded the head of the Kiev regime from signing the peace agreement with Russia that had already been initialed in Istanbul, which would have stopped hostilities.

🔹 It appears that the UK has pushed the Kiev regime closer to its inevitable defeat, compelling it to opt for continued confrontation with Russia. I think Ukrainians will long remember the fact that it is due to these actions that their country has suffered economic disaster, has lost most of its army, military equipment and at least four regions, besides Crimea.

🔹 As a matter of transparency, the initiators of today's meeting should have shared with us the information regarding what fabulous profits the UK received during almost three years of military support for Ukraine, how your arms companies have enriched themselves on the blood and tragedy of ordinary Ukrainians, and how your defence ministry has safely disposed of old military equipment that in any case would have had to be disposed of.

🔹 Those who are familiar with the history of the United Kingdom are not a bit surprised at UK's long-standing intervention in Ukraine. Pitting neighbors against each other, sowing discord between nations and peoples, and then supporting one of the sides of artificially created conflicts is something the UK has relished to do for centuries, and is really good at.

🔹 We understand that even in the 21st century it is extremely difficult for the UK to leave Ukraine and Russia to themselves – it is the blood of those colonizers who rampaged in Asia, Africa and Europe for centuries that sets the tone for UK's actions. We all know that for 250 years, the British Empire brutally and cynically suppressed the resistance of its colonies, resorted to forced assimilation and racial discrimination, forgetting about basic human values and the rights of the peoples under its control.

🔹 Suffering from phantom pains, longing for the empire over which "the sun never sets" and feeling nostalgic for the lost dominance, Britain along with its like-minded associates resorts to blackmailing and sanctions, and overthrows unwanted regimes through "color revolutions".

🔹 The UK has no moral right to accuse and reproach Russia. We have set the goal of getting rid of the nationalist and neo-Nazi "hornet's nest" on our borders. As long as the threats emanating from it, including the absorption of Ukraine by NATO, are not eliminated, as long as discrimination against the Russian-speaking people on the grounds of the language, faith and history is not stopped, as long as Ukraine does not stop whitewashing and glorifying Hitler's accomplices, our special military operation will continue.

🔹 Perhaps Joe Biden himself, for many reasons, has nothing left to lose, but what astonishes us is the short-sightedness of the UK and French leaders, who are rushing to play along with the outgoing administration and are dragging not only their own countries, but all of Europe into a full-scale escalation with drastic consequences.

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✍️ Russia's President Vladimir Putin approved the new Basic Principles of State Policy of the Russian Federation on Nuclear Deterrence, signing the attendant Executive Order on November 19, 2024.

Key items:

• State policy on Nuclear Deterrence is defensive by nature, it is aimed at maintaining the nuclear forces potential at the level sufficient for nuclear deterrence, and guarantees protection of national sovereignty and territorial integrity of the State, and deterrence of a potential adversary from aggression against the Russian Federation and/or its allies.

• The Russian Federation considers nuclear weapons as a means of deterrence, their use being an extreme and compelled measure, and takes all necessary efforts to reduce nuclear threat and prevent aggravation of interstate relations, that could trigger military conflicts, including nuclear ones.

• The Russian Federation ensures nuclear deterrence toward a potential adversary, which is understood to mean any individual states or military coalitions (blocs, alliances) which see the Russian Federation as a potential adversary and possess nuclear arms and/or other weapons of mass destruction or conventional forces with a significant combat capability.

• Nuclear deterrence is also ensured toward any states which provide the territory, airspace, and/or maritime space under their control as well as resources for preparing and conducting an aggression against the Russian Federation.

• An aggression of any single state from a military coalition (bloc, alliance) against the Russian Federation and/or its allies will be regarded as an aggression of the coalition (bloc, alliance) as a whole.

• An aggression against the Russian Federation and/or its allies of any non-nuclear state with the participation or support of a nuclear state will be regarded as their joint attack.

• The decision to use nuclear weapons is taken by the President of the Russian Federation.

💬 Russian MFA Spox Maria Zakharova: Considering the Kiev regime’s defeats, its Western curators are betting on the maximum escalation of the hybrid war unleashed against Russia, trying to achieve an illusory goal: to inflict a strategic defeat on Moscow.

However, no wonder weapon that Zelensky and his henchmen pray to get is capable to affect the course of the special military operation. <…>

Kiev’s use of long-range missiles to attack our territory would mean a direct involvement of the United States and its satellites in military operations against Russia, as well as a radical change in the essence and nature of the conflict.

☝️ Russia’s response would then be adequate and significant.

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