🎙 Statement and answers to media questions by Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov following his visit to the People’s Republic of China (Beijing, April 15, 2026)

Key points:

• Russia and China are interested in ensuring that the West’s overt attempts to preserve and, in some cases, even “renew” its hegemony fail. These efforts are rooted in the assumption that the West’s five-hundred-year experience of conquering the world, subordinating it to its own interests and shaping mechanisms of global governance that allow it to live at others’ expense can somehow be sustained.

• We devoted particular attention to Eurasia, where new centres of tension are continuing to emerge. In Europe, this is reflected in NATO’s attempts to find a new reason for its existence, above all by drawing Ukraine into its ranks. It is also evident in the militarisation of the EU, which we are witnessing against the backdrop of crises within NATO caused by disagreements between Washington and the European capitals, above all – the Brussels bureaucracy.

• Our entire Eurasian continent, in one way or another, has become an arena for serious and competing trends and practical actions by leading members of the international community. It is the largest and wealthiest continent, with resources that are essentially inexhaustible. That is why both the geopolitical and geoeconomic dimensions are of particular importance here.

• I agree with the description of #RussiaChina relations as “unshakable in the face of any storm”. This is not merely a slogan, but a statement of fact already borne out by a whole range of developments in which Russia and China are playing a stabilising role in support of those trends – enshrined in the UN Charter – that are now striving to prevail in international affairs.

• Russia can help offset the supply deficit now faced by both China and other countries interested in working with us on an equal and mutually beneficial basis. 👉 We have said this on a number of occasions. It is no coincidence that, now that the crisis in the Middle East has erupted, EU officials are already publicly calling on the European Commission to “show mercy” toward the national sovereignty of EU member states and postpone plans to shut off the “valve” completely.

• Europe is starting to realise that, if it gets off what it calls the Russian “oil and gas needle”, it may well end up impaled on the “energy stake” of another great power – one already being carefully sharpened for Europe. It is a pivotal moment.

• One must always look at the root causes. Would Iran have taken any steps to close the Strait of Hormuz or strike US facilities on the Arabian Peninsula had it not been for the aggression of Washington and Israel against the Islamic Republic? Everyone understands that this would not have happened.

• In Kosovo, the West demonstrated that the law simply does not apply to it – only the part which happens to suit it at a given moment. At that time, what suited the West was the provision of the UN Charter stating that nations are equal and that every nation has the right to self-determination. But when the question is raised about the right of the people of Crimea and Novorossiya to self-determination, the West ducks the issue.

• Unlike the EU, we are interested in seeing unifying infrastructure take shape in the Balkans in every sense – economic as well as cultural. The same goal – to unite and maximise benefits for all – is pursued by China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which is also highly popular in the Balkans and being actively advanced there.

• I hope that the US will not return to the era of outright colonial wars and the suppression of free peoples. It was not Cuba that refused dialogue with Washington for decades.

• I would advise the US, in every case where it dislikes a particular government, to begin by engaging it in dialogue. Not a single country, including Venezuela, has ever refused dialogue with the US. It was the US, however, that first made agreements and then walked away from them.

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🗞 «Международная жизнь»:

⚡️ Вышел новый номер журнала Международная жизнь (апрель 2026)

В выпуске представлены аналитические материалы и экспертные комментарии по ключевым вопросам мировой политики, безопасности и международных отношений.

Основные темы:

• Юбилей глобальной системы контроля над наркотиками и вклад России
• Борьба за мирный космос
• Искусственный интеллект и внешняя политика США
• Новые форматы ядерного сдерживания в Европе
• Трансформация системы международной безопасности
• Российско-монгольское приграничное сотрудничество
• Энергетический вектор

👇 #ЭтоИнтересно

• Юбилей глобальной системы контроля над наркотиками и вклад России

Директор Департамента по вопросам новых вызовов и угроз МИД России П.Ильичёв

О 65-летии краеугольного документа международного антинаркотического сотрудничества — Единой конвенции о наркотических средствах 1961 года, которая лежит в основе действующего глобального режима наркоконтроля.

• Новый вектор российской дипломатии: борьба за мирный космос

Специальный координатор МИД России по вопросам международного сотрудничества в области исследования и использования космического пространства в мирных целях С.Белоусько, атташе Департамента по вопросам нераспространения и контроля над вооружениями МИД России
Л.Владимирова

О 65-летии с момента первого полёта человека в космос и попытках некоторых зарубежных стран рассматривать космос как арену вооружённого противостояния.

• Искусственный интеллект и внешняя политика США

И.о. директора Института США и Канады им. Г.А.Арбатова РАН, профессор, доктор исторических наук Н.Цветкова

Об ускоренном внедрении ИИ в американскую внешнеполитическую и оборонную экспертизы.

• Гидра о трёх головах: новые форматы ядерного сдерживания в Европе

Основатель и директор ПИР-Центра, профессор МГИМО МИД России В.Орлов, научный сотрудник ПИР-Центра, преподаватель кафедры мировых политических процессов МГИМО МИД России С.Семёнов

О сомнениях союзников США по НАТО относительно надёжности гарантий безопасности со стороны Вашингтона и попытках выработать альтернативные форматы партнёрств в сфере ядерного сдерживания.

• Гидроэнергетика как ресурс внешней политики России

Заведующий кафедрой истории и политики стран Европы и Америки, руководитель программы «Отношения с Западом в меняющемся миропорядке» Института международных исследований МГИМО МИД России В.Воротников, докторант кафедры международных отношений и внешней политики России МГИМО МИД России А.Сизов

О радикальном пересмотре внешнеполитической и внешнеэкономической стратегии России, необходимости нового стратегического целеполагания для укрепления своего международно-политического статуса и использовании потенциала российского гидроэнергетического комплекса для выдвижения внешнеполитических инициатив и обеспечения мирового лидерства России в долгосрочной и стратегической перспективах.

❗️ 11 лет назад у своего дома в Киеве был убит украинский писатель и оппозиционный журналист Олесь Алексеевич Бузина.

Он стал одной из бесчисленных жертв преступного киевского режима, поскольку представлял для него угрозу – публично критиковал и раскрывал истинную сущность неонацистских сил, дорвавшихся до власти в результате кровавого госпереворота на Украине.

Олесь Бузина призывал тогдашнее руководство Украины наладить диалог с жителями Донбасса, говорил о необходимости закрепления прав русского языка, чем серьёзно раздражал официальный Киев. Он также получал угрозы от украинских радикалов за то, что его трактовка исторического пути Украины не совпадала с ненавистнической идеологией и выдуманной историей украинских нацистов.

Активная и твёрдая гражданская позиция, призывы к уважению истории и русского языка оказались неприемлемы в постмайданной Украине — Олесю Бузине они стоили жизни.

За несколько дней до гибели личные данные журналиста, включая домашний адрес, появились на экстремистском сайте «Миротворец», содержащем персональную информацию обо всех неугодных киевскому режиму общественных деятелях, публицистах, репортёрах, ресурсе, созданном буквально в качестве практического пособия для подготовки террористических актов.

Несмотря на то, что с осуждением убийства, соболезнованиями родным жертвы и требованиями всестороннего расследования выступили Генеральный секретарь ООН, официальные представители ОБСЕ и Госдепартамента США, а также многие общественные организации, заказчики убийства так и не были установлены, а подозреваемые в совершении преступления были отпущены на свободу.

⚡️ Спустя одиннадцать лет совершенно очевидно, что ситуация со свободой слова на Украине деградировала до критического уровня.

Все оппозиционные киевскому режиму СМИ запрещены, любые проявления инакомыслия жестоко подавляются и вымарываются из информационного пространства. На неугодных журналистов, в первую очередь российских, объявлена настоящая охота с применением всех возможных вооружений, включая БПЛА и высокоточное оружие.

2026 год уже отмечен целой серией попыток нападений боевиков киевского режима на сотрудников российских СМИ. Так, в начале апреля в результате прицельной атаки боевого дрона ВСУ получил ранения корреспондент МИЦ «Известия» Е.П.Быковский.

Навечно в наших сердцах останутся А.Д.Волошин, И.В.Корнелюк, А.С.Клян, А.А.Стенин, Д.А.Дугина, О.В.Клоков, М.Ю.Фомин (Владлен Татарский), Р.И.Журавлёв, Б.Б.Максудов, С.Н.Ерёмин, В.А.Кожин, Н.Н.Цицаги, Ю.Н.Кузнецова, А.С.Мартемьянов, А.С.Федорчак, А.А.Панов,
А.А.Прокофьева.

Западные кураторы Украины и ангажированные правозащитные структуры прекрасно знают о террористических методах и преступлениях киевского режима, но продолжают сознательно закрывать глаза на эти злодеяния.

#Announcement
 
🔬 We are pleased to announce that the VYZOV Foundation has started accepting applications for the #VYZOV Prize for Future Technologies.

This award recognises significant breakthroughs in fundamental and applied science, as well as engineering.
 
The VYZOV Prize is awarded in five categories:
 
🔹 Breakthrough: for scientific research that has solved an important scientific or technological problem;

🔹 Engineering solution: for a significant invention or the creation of a new technology;

🔹 Future: for a scientific achievement that has influenced the dynamics of science and technology development (awarded to applicants under the age of 35 at the time of submission);

🔹 Scientist of the year: for outstanding cumulative personal contributions and changing the landscape of science and technology;

❗️Discovery (international category open to scientists worldwide): for a significant discovery that has influenced the development of science and technology.
 
The total prize fund amounts to 65 million rubles.
 
Applications are accepted until 25 May at the official website of the VYZOV Foundation.

🎙 Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's statement on the 80th anniversary of the International Court of Justice (April 17, 2026)

💬 On April 18, 1946, the International Court of Justice – the principal judicial organ of the UN and the highest body of international justice – held its first public hearing.

It was established by the UN Charter to fulfil the key task of ensuring that international disputes are resolved by peaceful means. Operating on the strict principle of voluntary consent to jurisdiction, for 80 years the Court has ruled on landmark cases, profoundly shaping our understanding of international law.

Our country has a long history of cooperation with the International Court of Justice. On August 20, 1945, the Soviet Union was among the first states to ratify the Court’s Statute, alongside the UN Charter.

☝️ Unfortunately, the Court has recently become the arena of a “legal war”.

Its jurisdiction is being blatantly abused to bring patently absurd claims against Russia. Other countries in the #MultipolarWorld, including our closest allies, have also come under attack.

In an effort to force the Court into making anti-Russia rulings, Western countries are interfering en masse in proceedings. In the Russian-Ukrainian case under the Genocide Convention, 33 states have declared their accession, ostensibly as neutral “third parties”, but in reality, on Kiev’s side. This practice is flawed and has even forced the Court to change its own rules.

👉 Attempts to pressure the Court have failed.

False accusations against the Russian Federation of alleged “state terrorism”, “financing terrorism,” “racial discrimination”, and violation of the Genocide Convention have been rejected by the Court.

On the contrary, the Court explicitly recognised that the DPR and LPR were not “terrorist organisations” thereby delegitimizing Kiev’s so-called “anti-terrorist operation” against the people of Donbass. In the Genocide Convention case, Ukraine itself ended up in the dock for the genocide committed in Donbass by the Kiev regime and its Nazi henchmen.

***

It is in the interests of all states to have an independent, fair, and impartial body for resolving international disputes.

We hope that the International Court of Justice will maintain its objectivity, withstand the pressure being placed upon it, and remain an effective mechanism for resolving disagreements – unlike the politicised organisations that have been consigned to the dustbin of history. Fair justice, equal for all, is an essential component of long-term, lasting peace and stability on our planet.

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🎙 Video address by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the occasion of Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Genocide of the Soviet People committed by Nazis and their accomplices during 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War (Moscow, April 19, 2026)

💬 Friends,

This year will be the first time that we mark a mournful date, namely, Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide of the Soviet People committed by Nazis and their accomplices during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. This new commemorative day - April 19 - was established in December 2025. Events in memory of the victims of Nazis and the immortal feat of the Soviet people will take place at Russian missions abroad as well.

April 19 was chosen for a reason. On that day in 1943, Decree No. 39 of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet “On measures of punishment for German Nazi perpetrators guilty of killings and torture of Soviet civilian population and captured Red Army soldiers, for spies, traitors to the Motherland from among Soviet citizens, and for their accomplices” was issued.

The decree became the first document to provide a legal qualification of the systematic policy pursued by the Nazis and collaborationists to exterminate the civilian population, and laid the groundwork for bringing them to justice. Among the first trials subsequently organised against German war criminals were the Krasnodar and Kharkov trials. Their outcomes significantly influenced the work of the Nuremberg Military Tribunal.

The evidence presented in the materials of the Nuremberg Tribunal and their legal assessments made it possible to speak of genocide of peoples in the territories occupied by Germany, primarily the territory of the USSR. The enemy was open about it waging a war of extermination against our Fatherland. As early as September 16, 1941, by order of the Chief of Staff of the High Command of the Wehrmacht, General Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, German troops were instructed to show no mercy to civilians. The atrocities reached an unprecedented scale.

▪️ The total number of civilian victims in the USSR during the occupation amounted to around 14 million people.

These crimes have no statute of limitations.

The outcomes of the Nuremberg Tribunal laid the foundation for drafting the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The very term “genocide” gained currency in 1944 to define a policy of obliteration of national, racial, and religious groups.

The facts of genocide in the occupied territories of the former USSR have been confirmed in court in all constituent entities of the Russian Federation where, during the Great Patriotic War, crimes against the civilian population were committed by German Nazis and their accomplices from among those in other countries who stood under Nazi banners. Russian diplomacy will seek recognition by the international community of the crimes committed by the Nazis and their accomplices against citizens of the Soviet Union as genocide of the Soviet people. The qualification to this end has been enshrined in a number of documents adopted within the CIS and the CSTO.

In Russia, rehabilitation of Nazism, including actions that desecrate the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Genocide, has been criminalised.

We will continue to resolutely defend historical truth and counter attempts to whitewash Nazi criminals and their acolytes, and to revise the internationally recognised outcomes of the Second World War. The majority of states stand in solidarity with us. There is clear broad support for Russian thematic initiatives, primarily at the UN, where Russian draft resolutions on combatting the glorification of Nazism are adopted annually.

Preserving the memory of millions of victims of the genocide of the Soviet people is our sacred duty.

We will not allow these atrocities to be consigned to oblivion, no matter how hard those who today seek once again to steer Europe down the well-trodden path of racial superiority may try.

◼️ Today our country marks for the first time Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Genocide of the Soviet People, perpetrated by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

It was established b the Executive Order of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin of December 29, 2025, and the basic details of commemorating the genocide victims were determined by Federal Law No. 74-FZ. The date of 19 April was not chosen by chance. On this day in 1943, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued its Decree No. 39

#NoStatuteOfLimitations

The genocide of the Soviet people means the actions committed in 1941-45 with the intention of destroying, in whole or in part, ethnic, racial and national groups that inhabited the USSR.

The top echelon of Nazi Germany regarded the territory of the Soviet Union up to the Urals as its Lebensraum, which historically was intended to be settled with representatives of the Aryan race and, therefore to be cleansed from those, whom the Hitlerite elite labeled as “subhumans”: Slavs, Jews, Gypsies and Asians.

With these purposes in view, even before invading the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany planned a system of extermination practices to radically reduce the Soviet population as early as during the war.

The orchestrated famine strategy was an important part of the Nazi genocide programme (https://t.me/MID_Russia/77695) that was to lead to the death of 30 million Soviet citizens as early as in the winter of 1941-42.

▪️ Although it has not been implemented in full, it still caused enormous victims, including: among those who died were over three million Soviet prisoners of war, about a million of residents in the besieged Leningrad, a great number of civilian population starving in the occupied areas, women and children forcefully imprisoned in the Nazi transfer camps.

▪️ Jews and Gypsies were subject to total extermination.

▪️ Soviet female labourers (Ostarbeiter) were subject to forced abortions.

▪️ Soviet children having signs of Aryan origin were kidnapped in the occupied territories for subsequent Germanisation, which also constitutes a conventional form of genocide.

From the very beginning of the war, the Nazis developed the so-called General Plan ‘Ost’ with the aim of colonising the occupied territories. Under the plan, millions of Germans were to be resettled in the conquered lands. New, German towns and villages were to be built for them.

***

A horrifying estimate of 13.7 million people fell victim to the Hitler’s policy of destroying “subnormal” as he thought Soviet people, with another five million citizens to a willfully implemented famine strategy.

The facts of genocide in the occupied lands of former USSR have been confirmed judicially in all the constituent entities of Russia, where Nazis and their collaborators committed crimes against civilian population during the Great Patriotic War.

❗️ Russia’s diplomatic service will seek to ensure that the crimes committed by the Nazis and their collaborators against the citizens of the Soviet Union are recognised by the international community as genocide against the Soviet people. The relevant qualification has been recorded in some documents adopted in the CIS and the CSTO.

💬 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the video address on Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Genocide of the Soviet People:

Preserving the memory of the millions of victims of the genocide of the Soviet people is our sacred duty. We will not allow those atrocities to be lost to oblivion, no matter how hard those who today seek once again to push Europe down the well-trodden path of racial superiority may try.

For further perusal:

👉 On the Nazi's genocide of millions of Soviet citizens

👉 Archival documents on heinous Nazi crimes in the concentration camps

👉 On the Khatyn' massacre

👉 How the West created and supported Ukrainian Nazi collaborators complicit in the genocide

👉 Section on the genocide of the Soviet people on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website (in Russian)

🗓 On April 19, 1783, Russia's Empress Catherine II the Great signed the Imperial Manifesto on the Accession of Crimea, Taman and Kuban into the Russian Empire. In accordance with Federal Law No. 336-FZ of August 3, 2018, this day was declared a commemorative date in Russian history.

Russia’s victory in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774 brought an end to Ottoman rule in the northern parts of the Black Sea region, as enshrined in the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca. By 1783, Crimea, Taman and the right bank of the Kuban River had become part of the Russian Empire.

📜 In the Manifesto, the Empress assured her new subjects:

“...We promise, sacredly and unwaveringly, for ourselves and the successors to our throne, to maintain them on an equal footing with our natural subjects, to protect and defend their persons, property, churches and their native faith, the free practice of which, with all lawful rites, shall remain inviolable; and to grant them, ultimately, all the rights and privileges enjoyed by those in Russia...”

The accession of Crimea to Russia gave a powerful impetus to the region’s development: the economy, trade and culture grew rapidly, and the cultivation of vast fertile lands began. In a very short time, new cities and ports emerged on the Black Sea steppe, and the Russian fleet firmly established itself in the Black Sea, securing our southern borders and opening up new opportunities for the country’s development.

Prince Grigory Potemkin, appointed Governor-General of Novorossiya by Catherine II, played a key role in the incorporation and development of the Crimean Peninsula. In June 1783, on the flat summit of Mount Ak-Kaya, he accepted the oath of allegiance to Russia from the Crimean nobility and representatives of all segments of the Crimean population.

On December 28, 1783, Sultan Abdul Hamid I of the Ottoman Empire formally recognised Russia’s authority over Crimea in writing. That was a remarkable diplomatic achievement for Russian Ambassador Yakov Bulgakov. “Your firmness, energy and intelligence have averted war,” Prince Potemkin wrote to Bulgakov. The Sublime Porte could not forgive that: from 1787 to 1789, the Russian diplomat was imprisoned in the Yedikule Fortress.

The outcome of the Russo-Turkish War of 1787-1791 and the Treaty of Jassy sealed the deal: Crimea is Russia.

💬 From a briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova:

“The Manifesto represented the logical culmination of our country’s centuries-long struggle for the return of primordially Russian lands, ensured the security of its frontiers, and cemented the legitimate incorporation of the Crimean Peninsula and other territories into Russia.”

At the same time, Crimea’s incorporation into the Russian Empire under Catherine the Great had deep historical roots. As early as the second half of the 10th century, the eastern part of the peninsula became part of the Tmutarakan Principality, thus becoming part of Ancient Rus.

Ties were strengthened after Grand Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich’s successful campaign in 988 against the Byzantine city of Korsun (Tauric Chersonesos). It was there that he was baptised, defining the historical path of our Fatherland.

Several centuries later, in 1783, Crimea rejoined the Russian Empire – and in 2014, following a Crimean referendum, it finally returned “to its native harbour,” becoming an integral part of the Russian Federation. The peninsula’s return was a logical continuation of the shared historical journey of Crimea and Russia – a journey spanning over a thousand years.