💬 Russian President Vladimir Putin:

🇪🇺 I ask my colleagues, the experts, "What’s lacking in Europe right now?"

🧠 The answer is simple — they lack brains. Not because they're unintelligent, no! But because economic decisions are being made by politicians who have nothing to do with economics. The decisions are politicized, uncalculated, and lack any real thought.

🤝 In the lead-up to the First Ministerial Conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum (November 9-10, 2024, Sochi), Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is holding a series of meetings with his African counterparts.

📈 The Conference builds on the accomplishments of the 2023 Russia-Africa Summit and seeks to deepen cooperation between Russia and African nations across various fields, including politics, security, economics, science, technology, culture, and humanitarian initiatives.

🌐 This event will bring together prominent leaders from Russia and Africa, including key African ministers, Russian and African business representatives, and experts across multiple sectors. Discussions will cover a wide range of topics, from trade and investment to science, education, and regional cooperation, with a special emphasis on strengthening BRICS-Africa relations.

ℹ️ LEARN MORE about the event, its business and cultural programmes.

#PhotoOfTheDay

📸 Heads of the African nations delegations and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov took part in the #FamilyPhoto ceremony ahead of the Plenary Session of the First Ministerial Conference of the #RussiaAfrica Partnership Forum.
 
📍 Sochi, November 10

📑 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.

⚡️ Joint Statement of the First Ministerial Conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum (Sirius Federal Territory, Russian Federation, November 10, 2024)

✍️ We, the Foreign Ministers of the Russian Federation and African States recognised by the United Nations (UN), Leadership of the African Union Commission and of executive bodies of the leading African integration organisations, as well as their representatives, gathered on 10 November 2024 in the Russian Federation, Sirius Federal Territory, to participate in the First Ministerial Conference of the #RussiaAfrica Partnership Forum.

We are pleased to note the strategic level of Russia-Africa cooperation, and positively assess the pace of the implementation of the agreements reached during the first (Sochi, 23-24 October 2019) and second (Saint Petersburg, 27-28 July 2023) Russia-Africa Summits and articulated in the final documents thereof, including the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum Action Plan 2023-2026.

We reconfirm our intention to continue strategic-level engagement in order to achieve a world order that would ensure international peace and security for all, equal opportunities for the development of all States, preservation of their cultural and civilizational uniqueness regardless of differences in political, economic and social structures, geographical location, demographic, resource and military potentials.

We welcome the adoption by heads of delegations participating in the First Ministerial Conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership of joint statements on:

• measures to create a fair, transparent and equitable system of International Information Security;
• strengthening cooperation in the fight against terrorism;
• current issues of exploration and use of Outer Space for peaceful purposes.

We reconfirm the shared responsibility of the Russian Federation and African States for supporting the creation of a just and stable world order based on the principles of sovereign equality of States, non-interference in their internal affairs, respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and the right of all peoples to self-determination as provided for, inter alia, by UN General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960, as well as the need to preserve national identity and national resources, cultural and civilizational diversity and to protect traditional values.

👉 Political Cooperation

We consider the development of constructive partnership with the African Union and the leading African integration organisations as a foreign policy priority of the Russian Federation and African States.

👉 Security Cooperation

We confirm the importance of the principle of "African Solutions to African Problems" in conflict resolution.

👉 Trade and Economic Cooperation

We express our readiness to continue joint efforts to strengthen the voice and representation of the African continent in the global economic governance architecture.

👉 Education, Health, Culture, Sports, Youth Policy and Media Cooperation

We welcome the dynamic cooperation between the Russian Federation and African States in the field of culture.

👉 Environmental and Climate Cooperation

We advocate for stepping up efforts to consolidate approaches to international environmental and climate issues within the specialised UN fora to prevent the politicisation of work in these areas.

***

The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and African States recognised by the United Nations, Leadership of the African Union Commission and the executive bodies of the leading African integration organisations, as well as their representatives, who participated in the First Ministerial Conference of the Russia‑Africa Partnership Forum express their commitment to further working together in order to expand cooperation and ensure the success of the third Russia-Africa Summit to be held in 2026.

Read in full

🇺🇳 The Third Committee of the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly adopted the Russian draft resolution “Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.”

✅ 116 countries voted in favour
❌ 54 against
➖ 11 abstained.

The list of those nations who voted against condemning racism and in favour of glorification of Nazism:

United States, Canada, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Moldova, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, Australia, Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Japan, Andorra, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Fiji, Georgia, Hungary, New Zealand, Iceland, Ireland, Kiribati, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malta, Montenegro, Norway, San Marino, North Macedonia, Monaco, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Republic of Korea, Palau, Tonga.

🇬🇧 During yesterday’s panel discussion on the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, a representative of the UK Permanent Mission to the UN Office in Geneva claimed that she “was not aware of any examples of Russian journalists having been persecuted or undermined in any way in the United Kingdom”.

🇷🇺 This remark was made in response to the statement by a Russian representative highlighting a widespread campaign against Russian and Russian-speaking media and journalists in Western countries.

🚨 This calls for a reminder to the UK representative on the instances of sanctions and discrimination targeting Russian media outlets, as it’s possible that the UK government is deliberately withholding this information:

🔇 So far, the UK has:

• Launched 15 investigations into RT news programming; - February 28, 2022

• Officially disconnected RT from UK TV; - March 3, 2022
 
• Launched another 12 investigations against RT; -March 3, 2022
 
• Terminated RT’s broadcasting license; - March 18, 2022
 
• Introduced sanctions against Rossiya Segodnya and Editor-in-Chief of Sputnik International Anton Anisimov; -March 31, 2022
 
• Declared that social media, internet services and app stores must block RT and Sputnik content; - May 4, 2022
 
• Expanded sanctions to VGTRK and a number of Russian journalists for their coverage of events in Ukraine. The blacklist includes Nailya Asker-zade, military correspondents Yevgeny Poddubny, Alexander Kots and Dmitry Steshin, TV presenter Mikhail Leontyev, and St Petersburg TV Director General Alexander Malkevich; - May 4, 2022
 
• Introduced sanctions against executives of News Front Media Group, including NF Director Yevgeny Glotov and NF co-founder Yury Fedin; - July 4, 2022
 
• Blacklisted Yuzhny Front News Agency; - July 4, 2022
 
• Blacklisted YF journalists Denis Gafner and Valeria Kalabayeva; - July 5, 2022
 
• Blocked the Twitter (X) account of RIA Novosti; - August 4, 2022
 
• Introduced sanctions against the Head of Regnum news agency Sergei Rudnov and Svetlana Kryvonogykh for being a shareholder in the National Media Group. - 8 February, 2023

 
❗️ The Russian MFA has been tracking every instance of foreign reprisal against Russian journalists and media since 2022. No hard feelings in case of reciprocal measures.

🇺🇳 13 ноября в Женеве начало работу 82-е заседание Комитета ЕЭК ООН по лесам и лесной отрасли (КЛЛО).

🇷🇺 В мероприятии принимает участие межведомственная российская делегация в составе сотрудников Минприроды России, Рослесхоза, а также представителей деловых кругов и ассоциаций.

🌲 Основная тема заседания - «Экономические меры борьбы с обезлесением». Эксперты обсудят общие подходы к борьбе с обезлесением при одновременном обеспечении стабильности рынков лесной продукции и развития лесной промышленности, а также одобрят рекомендации по развитию устойчивого управления лесами на страновом уровне, включая сохранение и воспроизводство лесов.

ℹ️ КЛЛО был учрежден в 1947 г. в целях гармонизации политики государств общеевропейского региона в сфере регулирования лесной отрасли. В числе центральных задач Комитета – обеспечение устойчивого управления лесами с учетом экономических, экологических и социальных факторов, исследование вклада лесов в борьбу с изменением климата, обмен опытом и наилучшими практиками в сферах развития лесного хозяйства и лесной промышленности с учётом экосистемного подхода, а также по вопросам подготовки кадров и развития потенциала.

❗️ Российская Федерация придаёт большое значение вопросам на повестке дня КЛЛО, который является важным механизмом межправительственного сотрудничества в сфере устойчивого лесопользования.

🤝 В нашей стране накоплен обширный опыт реализации крупных проектов, направленных на сохранение и преумножение лесов, в том числе вокруг городов и населенных пунктов, а также на предотвращение безвозвратной потери лесов в целях обеспечения достойного качества жизни граждан. Нацелены на продолжение конструктивного диалога со всеми заинтересованными партнёрами.

🇺🇳 On November 13, the 82nd session of the UNECE Committee on Forests and the Forest Industry (COFFI) began in Geneva.

🇷🇺 An interministerial Russian delegation is participating in the event, including representatives from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Russia, the Federal Forestry Agency (Rosleskhoz), as well as business leaders and association representatives.

🌲 The main theme of the session is "Economic Measures to Combat Deforestation". Experts will discuss common approaches to combating deforestation while ensuring the stability of timber product markets and the development of the forest industry. They will also approve recommendations for promoting sustainable forest management at the national level, including forest conservation and restoration.

ℹ️ COFFI was established in 1947 to harmonize the forest sector policies of countries in the pan-European region. Among the Committee’s central objectives are ensuring sustainable forest management that considers economic, environmental, and social factors, studying the contribution of forests to combating climate change, exchanging experience and best practices in forest management and the forest industry using an ecosystem-based approach, as well as addressing issues related to workforce training and capacity building.

❗️ The Russian Federation attaches great importance to the issues on COFFI’s agenda, as the Committee serves as an important mechanism for intergovernmental cooperation on sustainable forest use.

🤝 Russia has accumulated extensive experience in implementing large-scale projects aimed at preserving and increasing forest cover, including around cities and settlements, as well as preventing irreversible forest loss to ensure a decent quality of life for its citizens. We remain committed to continuing constructive dialogue with all interested partners.

#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.

⚡️ Comment by Russia's Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on the murder of Narodnaya Gazeta Editor-in-Chief Yulia Kuznetsova (November 18, 2024)

▪️On November 17, Narodnaya Gazeta Editor-in-Chief Yulia Kuznetsova died in the line of duty in the village of Bolshoye Soldatskoye, the Kursk Region, as a result of a targeted UAV attack launched by armed militants of the Kiev regime.

Ukrainian Nazis dropped drone-carried munitions on a vehicle loaded with the newspaper’s archives. The ensuing blast also injured an e-typesetting operator of the newspaper and an accompanying police officer.

We express our sincere condolences to Ms Kuznetsova’s family and friends. She died while performing her professional duty. We wish her wounded colleagues a rapid recovery and convalescence.

❗️ This cold-blooded murder is yet another example of the ugly and pathologically criminal nature of the Zelensky regime, which is ready to use bloody terrorist methods against civilians, civil services, and media personnel. Moreover, the Ukrainian Nazis have launched a real hunt for journalists covering frontline events. This year alone, they delivered targeted strikes that killed war correspondents Semyon Yeryomin, Valery Kozhin, and Nikita Tsitsagi, and heavily wounded Alexei Ivliyev and Yevgeny Poddubny.

🤐 This series of cruel murders and attempts on the lives of Russian journalists is a direct consequence of the connivance tactics adopted by the Western patrons of the Nazi clique in Kiev and the deliberate hushing-up of these crimes by the relevant international organisations and human rights groups.

Yet another eloquent example of this politically biased and profoundly immoral approach is the recently published draft report for 2022-2023 on media security and the impunity problem by UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay, a report that ignores the official Russian data on journalist deaths during that period. <...>

Likewise, this hall of shame includes cynical statements by representatives of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). They claim that the lack of response to numerous crimes against Russian journalists from the High Commissioner and various special procedures under the UN Human Rights Council is due to Russia failing to provide access for them to confirm this data. <...>

☝️ Currently, Russia’s competent authorities are carrying out an investigation to identify and bring to account, as prescribed by law, all Ukrainian militants implicated in Yulia Kuznetsova’s murder, which is classified as a terrorist attack.

We emphasise once again: all those guilty of murdering the Russian journalist will face well-deserved and unavoidable punishment.

Read in full

🎙 Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s response to a media question about alleged permission to Kiev to launch missile strikes deep into Russia

❓ Question: Western media are spreading reports that Joe Biden has allegedly given Kiev permission to launch strikes deep into Russian territory with American ATACMS missiles, and France and Great Britain to launch their SCALP and STORM SHADOW missiles. How could you comment on this?

💬 Maria Zakharova: It is yet unclear if these reports are based on official sources. One thing is clear: 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.

President Vladimir Putin clearly stated on October 25 what “permitting” to use of NATO high-precision long-range weapons actually means. He stressed that Ukraine cannot execute such strikes on its own without using space satellites and flight assignments provided by NATO military personnel.

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.

✍️ 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.