🗞️ On 24 June, marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Soviet Information Bureau, we are pleased to present the digital photo exhibition “85 Years of Soviet Information Bureau. History in Motion. An Era Remembered” prepared by the Rossiya Segodnya media group.

📸 It brings together 30 iconic photographs taken by the legendary correspondents, depicting the major events of the second half of the twentieth century and the present day.

⌛️ A distinctive feature of the exhibition is its combination of images from a heroic past with modern technologies that make it possible to “bring to life” archival photographs using neural network tools.

⚡️ Russia's Foreign Ministry has published its second report on the situation regarding the rights of Indigenous peoples in selected countries.

Like the previous report published in 2024, it identifies the key current challenges and analyses the situation of Indigenous populations in six Arctic Council member states: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the United States, as well as Australia, Japan and New Zealand.

In recent years, the issue of Indigenous peoples’ rights has become excessively politicised and rife with cynically applied double standards. Overall, it is increasingly being used to foment division and confrontation rather than promote cooperation among members of the international community.

The US, Canada and their allies have stepped up their activities at universal international platforms, within regional formats and in the media, promoting narratives about alleged violations of Indigenous peoples’ rights in Russia and several developing countries. In doing so, they seek to:

• divert global attention from problems in North America, Western Arctic states, Australia, Japan and New Zealand;
• call into question Russia’s right to its ancestral Arctic territories.

Virtually all the countries covered by the report have historically pursued policies of assimilation and discrimination against their Indigenous populations in one form or another. This has created, and continues to cause, numerous sociopolitical and cultural problems.

Many countries are currently developing mechanisms for consultation and cooperation with Indigenous communities. However, the measures adopted in this area are often incomplete.

☝️Common challenges facing Indigenous peoples in various countries include:

• the gradual erosion of their traditional way of life as a consequence of past assimilation policies;
• violations of their rights to traditional lands and natural resources;
• environmental degradation caused by industrial exploitation and the militaristic activities of certain states abroad;
• high unemployment;
• Indigenous communities’ dependence on state subsidies.

These adverse phenomena are particularly acute in Arctic countries, which is why the situation there has been addressed in a separate report.

🇷🇺🇧🇾 This issue was also traditionally covered in the third Joint Report by the Foreign Ministries of Russia and Belarus – “The Human Rights Situation in Certain Countries”, published in June 2026.

These matters are also systematically addressed in the Russian Foreign Ministry’s annual human rights reports, including those examining the glorification of Nazism, the spread of neo-Nazism and other practices contributing to the escalation of contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. The latest such report was published in August 2025.

📄 The Russian Foreign Ministry has compiled and issued a report on the indigenous peoples rights situation in certain countries.

👉 Read the report in full

Despite continued focus on indigenous peoples and general understanding that it is important to develop and protect their rights, significant challenges in this area still remain. Among other things, this is caused by persisting and even deepening historical injustice against many indigenous peoples that occurs in a number of states, which manifested itself in colonization, deprivation of land, territories and resources of those indigenous peoples.

❗️ We also note that the topic of indigenous people’s rights is subject to excessive politicization as well, is fraught with cynically applied double standards, and is generally aimed at creating division and confrontation rather than cooperation between all participants.

Additionally, assessment of the living standards of indigenous peoples is misused by a number of States (primarily Canada, Norway, Finland, the US, etc.) and international organizations to exert international pressure, including with the aim of questioning Russia's right to its original Arctic lands.

Another goal of this unfair practice of a number of countries is to divert the attention of the international community from their own problems in establishing a regime for the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples and to conceal the plight of their citizens from among traditional societies.

For example, almost all Arctic States mentioned in the report pursued some form of assimilation and discrimination policies towards the aboriginal population, which led to multiple social, political and cultural problems.

Canada

Indigenous peoples of Canada remain one of the most oppressed and marginalised groups, facing persistent discrimination and life below the poverty line.

The Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, mandated by the UN Human Rights Council, has reported that the protection of economic, social and cultural rights of Indigenous peoples in Canada remains unsatisfactory.

Canada's ongoing colonial violence against Indigenous peoples manifests, to this day, in practices such as forced sterilisation.

Finland

Discrimination in Finland manifests as significant encroachments on the rights of the Sami people, indigenous inhabitants of Finland totalling around 10,000 people, with 2,000 native speakers of the Sami language. In most cases, human rights bodies have underscored obstacles to the practical realisation of the right to use the Sami language, enshrined in the Finnish legislation.


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This topic was also traditionally included in the third joint report of the Foreign Ministries of Russia and Belarus on the Human Rights Situation in Certain Countries published in June 2026.

Besides, these issues are consistently highlighted in the annual reports of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation on human rights issues, including in reports 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 (the latest such report was released in August 2025).

🎙 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s answer to a media question (Moscow, June 26, 2026)

💬 Question: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently said that during the meeting between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Alaska, where the situation around Ukraine was discussed, only a proposal on an approach to a settlement was put forward, and that no agreement had ever been reached there. Could you comment on this situation?

Sergey Lavrov: We are indeed receiving many questions on this subject. It is important to clarify the situation as we see it. I hope this will be clear to the audience.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that in Alaska there were only proposals, not agreements on the settlement in Ukraine. Therefore, allegedly, it is unclear why Moscow is so concerned. The point is that, if we look at the full picture, several days before the meeting in Alaska, US President’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff visited Moscow and brought those very proposals from President Donald Trump. We took them into consideration. President Vladimir Putin promised to give his response at the meeting in Alaska.

Already in Anchorage, when the two Presidents “sat down for talks” – Marco Rubio and I were also present – President Vladimir Putin, looking at Steve Witkoff, who was also in the room, began listing the US proposals point by point. After each point, in the presence of President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vladimir Putin asked Steve Witkoff whether he had accurately captured the ideas that the latter had brought to Moscow ahead of Anchorage.

👉 Steve Witkoff answered each time in the affirmative. Therefore, when my colleague Marco Rubio says that there were only proposals in Alaska and no agreement, this raises a question for me as to what we mean by an agreement. If one Side – in this case, the US – puts forward its settlement proposals, its ideas on how to approach this crisis, and the other Side expresses consent to these proposals, then saying that there was no agreement does not sound particularly elegant.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said, while speaking at another event somewhere in the Middle East, that they are ready to step forward and play a constructive role, should they have such an opportunity. He said, in effect, that bringing the parties together and ending this war is what US President Donald Trump has been trying to do for a year and a half.

All of this can probably be taken as confirmation that in Alaska there were American proposals, and that we accepted them. But the quote I have just cited raises a question from another angle. I am referring to Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s recent remarks at congressional hearings, when he said that the US could not be a mediator because it supports Ukraine.

Now, when Washington expresses interest in playing a constructive role and bringing the parties together, this already sounds like a bid for mediation.

❗️ Of course, this entire situation needs to be clarified. But the fact remains: US proposals were discussed in Alaska, and they were accepted by the Russian Side.

⚡️ Comment by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova regarding Romania’s ban on Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics team from using national symbols (June 27, 2026)
 
💬 Russian participants in the 2026 FIG Rhythmic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup being held in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, from June 26 to June 28, faced yet another instance of outright arbitrary action and politicisation of international sport.
 
Notwithstanding the recent decisions by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) and the European Gymnastics Union to lift all existing restrictions and restore our athletes’ rights, they were forbidden to use their national flag and anthem at the World Challenge Cup in Romania. The Russian side’s responded in the only possible and logical way by refusing to participate in the competitions.
 
The situation looks all the more absurd because the so-called sanctions against our gymnasts were maintained due to the efforts by the local mayor who resorted to routine statements of countering the “aggressor state.”

Neither the event organisers nor the authorities dared to stand up to the provincial official who apparently decided to raise his “standing” in this way.  
 
It is deplorable that the Russophobia being nurtured in Romania in recent years has yielded such ugly fruit – it exposes the disorder that reigns there, when random figures are allowed arbitrariness and shame a country that is apparently unable to provide equal conditions for participants in major international competitions, and therefore must lose the right to claim them.

☝️ The Russian Side will not dismiss this issue.