🎙 Statement by Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on the death of Russian journalist Boris Maksudov:

◾️ On November 22, militants of the Kiev regime deliberately targeted a group of Russian journalists with a shrapnel drone. The journalists were making a report on Ukrainian shellings of civilian objects in the Zaporozhye region. The next day, Boris Maksudov, a military correspondent from "Russia-24" TV channel died from the sustained injuries.

🕯 First and foremost, we express our sincere condolences to the friends and family of Boris Maksudov and all media workers who have perished in the line of duty.

📸 The criminal Kiev regime continues to identify Russian journalists and military correspondents as priority targets, authorizing an open season on them. Ukrainian militants cowardly target unarmed correspondents, photographers and cameramen who are considered civilians. The Kiev regime resorts to clearly terrorist methods to eliminate the media workers, without fearing any criticism from its Western curators and biased human rights structures. It openly boasts this fact.

❗️ The brutal murder of Boris Maksudov is yet another grave crime of the neo-Nazi Kiev regime, which has blood of many thousands of civilians on its hands. We are convinced that these crimes will not go unpunished. The perpetrators will not escape just and lawful retribution.

#Мнение Г.М.Гатилова

🇨🇭 Каждый год в Швейцарии вот уже более 40 лет проводится любопытное социологическое исследование, так называемый «Барометр тревог» (Sorgenbarometer), отражающий наиболее беспокоящие темы для различных слоёв населения этой страны.

📊 Не без интереса ознакомился с недавно опубликованным подобным отчётом за 2023 г. Весьма показательно, что в первой десятке острейших (по мнению местного населения) проблем практически не нашлось места вопросам внешней политики, включая кризис на Украине, интерес к которому в Швейцарии ощутимо снизился по сравнению с 2022 г.

🤔 А что же беспокоит граждан Конфедерации? Вот «пятёрка» самых горячих тем:

1⃣ Здравоохранение и медицинское страхование – 40%
2⃣ Охрана окружающей среды и изменение климата – 38%
3⃣ Пенсионное обеспечение – 32%
4⃣ Отношения с Европой/ЕС, доступ на европейский рынок – 26%
5⃣ Энергетическая безопасность – 26%

🔟 «Десятку» замыкают вопросы, касающиеся миграции населения, инфляции, роста цен на жильё, беженцев в Швейцарии и социального обеспечения.

🇺🇦 Тема Украины волнует лишь 13% респондентов (20% – в 2022 г). А исходя из разбивки по возрастным группам, то она интересует преимущественно франкоязычных представителей поколения «бэби-бумеров» (1946-1964 гг.), не вызывая особого отклика среди представителей последующих поколений X, Y и Z.

👉 Какой вывод можно сделать? Тот, что даже в такой зажиточной европейской стране как Швейцария есть немало острых внутренних проблем, вызывающих беспокойство у её жителей. Однако руководство Конфедерации, как показала недавняя поездка её президента А.Берсе на Украину, озабочено не ими, а тем, как бы не отстать от других русофобов и поучаствовать в «перформансе» киевского комика.

❗ Всё это – очередное свидетельство недальновидной политики стран «коллективного Запада», ставящих чужие интересы выше чаяний своих граждан, часть из которых однажды спросит: «Куда же делся наш нейтралитет?».

#Opinion by Ambassador Gennady Gatilov

🇨🇭 For more than 40 years, Switzerland conducts an annual sociological study aka the "Worry Barometer" (Sorgenbarometer) that reflects the most concerning topics for various segments of the Swiss population.

📊 I found it quite interesting to take a look at the recently published report for 2023. It is quite telling that among the top ten most acute problems (according to the local population), there was little to no place for foreign policy issues, including the Ukrainian crisis, interest in which has noticeably dropped in Switzerland (compared to 2022).

🤔 Let’s take a look at the “top five” concerns of the Swiss citizens:

1⃣ Healthcare and medical insurance – 40%
2⃣ Environmental protection and climate change – 38%
3⃣ Retirement provision – 32%
4⃣ Relations with Europe/EU, access to the European market – 26%
5⃣ Energy issues and security of supply – 26%

🔟 The rest of the "top ten" include issues related to immigration, inflation, rising housing costs, refugees in Switzerland and social security.

🇺🇦 Ukraine now concerns only 13% of respondents (20% in 2022). Moreover, according to the age group breakdown, it spikes the interest of predominantly French-speaking baby boomers (1946-1964), not eliciting much response among the subsequent generations X, Y and Z.

👉 What conclusion can be drawn here? Even in such prosperous European countries as Switzerland there are many acute domestic problems that worry its residents. However, the leadership of the Confederation, as shown by the recent trip of its President Alain Berset to Ukraine, is rather concerned with the ways on how not to fall behind other Russophobes and attend yet another "performance" of the Kiev comedian.

❗ All this is a testimony to the shortsighted policy of the "collective West" countries that put foreign interests above the concerns of their own citizens, some of whom may one day ask: "How come our neutrality is missing?".

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to media questions at the Primakov Readings International Forum

📍 Moscow, November 27 2023

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Key talking points:

🌐 Global events are unfolding dynamically. To say so is an understatement. Many erstwhile “international relations constants,” including major trends that are shaping the multipolar order, are being tested for strength and adequacy in the face of new realities.

🤝 The world is changing, and multilateral diplomacy reflects this. #BRICS cooperation is one of the best examples of this. In this framework, countries representing different civilisations, religions and macro-regions are effectively developing ties in the most diverse areas – from politics and security to the economy, finances, healthcare, sports and culture. Proceeding from the principles of equality and mutual respect, they are reaching a balance of interests via consensus. Nobody is imposing anything on anybody, nobody is blackmailing anyone and nobody forces anyone to make the choice: “it’s either us or them,” “either you’re with us or against us.” It’s no surprise that dozens of states want to get closer to BRICS.

☝️ In chasing their goals, the US and its European allies employ a versatile geopolitical “engineering” toolset, including the provoking of conflicts (as seen along the entire perimeter of Russia's borders), conducting information and psychological warfare, and initiating trade and economic wars.

↩️ The destructive actions of the Western minority have largely beaten their purpose, as they foster multipolar principles in international affairs.

There is a growing understanding that no one is immune to the aggressive actions of Washington and Brussels.

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks during the 30th meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council (November 30, 2023)

Key points:

• In just over a year, the Helsinki Final Act will mark its 50th anniversary. Regrettably, the OSCE is approaching this milestone in a lamentable condition, and its prospects remain uncertain.

• Unfortunately, Western political elites appropriated the role of rulers of humanity’s destiny and made a shortsighted choice in favour of NATO rather than the OSCE. They embraced a philosophy of containment, geopolitical zero-sum games, and the leader-follower logic. The bloc’s reckless expansion to the East, which started after the dissolution of the Warsaw Treaty Organisation, was a key component of this approach.

• The genuine intentions of the Western politicians again revealed themselves when Washington and Brussels rejected Russia’s December 2021 proposals on legally binding security guarantees in Europe.

• In a bid to crush the Russian economy, the United States and its European satellites have introduced thousands of anti-Russia sanctions, thereby making impossible any significant East-West practical cooperation in what was once our common region.

• The Kiev regime is Washington’s investment into its egoistic interests of deterring Russia and resolving its own problems at the expense of others. This applies to the removal of economic competitors, primarily the EU.

• The current situation is a direct consequence of the persistent attempts by our Western neighbours to ensure their dominance, as they shamelessly use the OSCE to aggressively push through their self-serving interests and consciously undermine the fundamental principle of consensus and the culture of diplomacy.

• There are no particular reasons to be optimistic now. Essentially, the OSCE is being reformatted to become an appendage of NATO and the EU. This organisation (let’s face it) is on the brink of the abyss.

❓ Hence, a simple question: Does it make any sense to invest in any effort to revive it?

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🎙 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement and answers to media questions following the 30th OSCE Ministerial Council Meeting,

📍 Skopje, December 1, 2023

I regret that we have approached the 30th OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in an atmosphere that is not conducive to anniversary celebrations. We are seeing the complete degradation of everything that has been created within the OSCE (previously within this Conference) in all three security dimensions.

We have become convinced that our Western colleagues have not learned any lessons from their disastrous policy line towards destroying the OSCE. They continue to finish it off with a zeal worthy of better use.

👉 Everything has been destroyed in the military-political area. They refused to ratify the Adapted CFE Treaty and many other agreements that helped maintain a security balance.

👉 Everything has been destroyed in the economic area as well. This second “basket” was demolished by the unprecedented sanctions that the EU and the US have imposed on the Russia Federation.

👉 There is nothing to say about human rights. No problems at all arose for many years despite the killing of children, women and civilians in general, and the full trade and economic blockade of Donbass and the suspension of water supplies to Russian Crimea.

The Macedonian Chairmanship set the right motto – “It’s about people.” During yesterday’s working lunch, I told my colleagues that when talking about people we were referring to all citizens of the OSCE countries and even “non-citizens” that are kept in this shameful status in Latvia and Estonia.

🤦‍♂️ In reality, it appears that all this excitement and concern about people is limited to the four heads of the OSCE offices. At any rate, I cannot reach any other conclusion from the nervous activity of our Western colleagues.

I do not care about the outcome of this get-together and the attempts to bargain for an extra day or week to continue the crude violation of all OSCE principles.

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📑 The Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation has compiled the latest report on the glorification of Nazism, the proliferation of neo-Nazism and other practices that escalate modern forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, 2023 edition.

The report has been drawn up in line with Russia’s efforts to preserve the historical truth about the course and outcome of World War II.

Primarily caused by blatant double standards and revanchism, the negative tendencies described in the report become more prominent every year.

❗️ This year is sadly no exception

<...>

There is a significant number of countries today where Nazi collaborators are now honoured as “fighters for independence” of these countries, and where all possible means are used to reshape public opinion to take a different tone. <...> Russia sees increasingly more evidence that the roles played by the officials of these countries are damaging their own people’s interests.

In February 2022, the collective West gained another impetus and motivation to justify its Russophobic activity after Russia started the special military operation to de-Nazify and demilitarise Ukraine and protect the civilian population of Donbass. In reality, the West’s activity took the shape of total discrimination against Russians, which persists to this day.

The exposed tendencies only confirm Russia’s claim that racial discrimination and the glorification of Nazism create a serious threat to the values of true democracy and the protection of human rights, seriously challenging international and regional security.

☝️ Importantly, the absolute majority of members of the global community shares Russia’s approaches to countering the glorification of Nazism.

Read in full (In PFD)