📆 September 3 marks Solidarity Day against Terrorism in Russia.

◾️ The date is linked to the tragic events that took place on September 1−3, 2004, in Beslan, North Ossetia. During the first bell ceremony to mark the beginning of the new school year, a terrorist unit seized School No 1. The attack resulted in the loss of 334 lives, including 186 children.

The horrific terrorist attack on March 23, 2024 at the Crocus City Hall concert facility, which affected numerous innocent civilians, once again emphasised the need to consolidate international efforts in the fight against terrorism.

We urge the international community to work together to combat terrorism, with the United Nations playing a central coordinating role. This should be done without any double standards or hidden agendas, in accordance with the UN Charter, specialised universal conventions and protocols, UN Security Council resolutions, and the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy.

Learn more on Russia’s position at the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly.

☝️ Russia remains firmly committed to a principled struggle against terrorist threats. We advocate for more intensive efforts to disrupt ideological, material and financial support for terrorism and oppose the stiving of Western countries to undermine the international legal framework for counterterrorism.

🎙 Interview with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for 'Bridges to the East' documentary (Moscow, August 31, 2024)

Key talking points

#Syria

• In 2011, the United States decided to send the Syrian people along the same path as Iraq and Libya which countries they had devastated by their aggressive policies. We were strongly against seeing this scenario replay. In 2015, by President Putin’s decision, we sent a contingent of our armed forces to defend the Syrian Arab Republic against direct aggression.

❗️ The US invasion of Iraq and the toppling of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein gave rise to ISIS, which posed a real threat to Syria’s existence.

• When the Russian armed forces moved into Syria, ISIS was on the outskirts of Damascus, and Western countries, led by the United States, were attempting to assert their dominance in eastern Syria. We stabilised the situation and since then most of Syria’s territory has been controlled by the legitimate government.

#Iraq

• In 2003, led by the United States, NATO invaded Iraq under a false pretext, a false flag. Later, the Westerners admitted there was no reason for an invasion. No need to eliminate weapons of mass destruction whatsoever. They broadcasted to the whole world the hanging of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, allegedly for possessing weapons of mass destruction. This is a disgusting turn of events.

#MiddleEast #Libya

• Western Jerusalem is ramping up military actions against the entities that they believe support the Palestinians and do so with an extremist slant, namely, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine. Israel wants to destroy the latter which is an exercise in futility. The sides must come to terms instead. Hamas is part of the Palestinian people, just as Hezbollah is part of the Lebanese people.

• Lebanon remains in a situation where it is facing new challenges largely due to the crisis in the Gaza Strip and, more broadly, the Palestinian territories.

• We remain in contact with our Israeli colleagues through the Foreign Ministry, the Defence Ministry, and the respective security councils from both countries. We are trying to drive home the futility of the attempts to address issues by force without considering alternative paths.

• Washington stands behind every decision made by Israel. The US blocks all agreements at the UN Security Council that would lead to a full and permanent ceasefire. The Americans continue to supply weapons to Western Jerusalem, which are then used to commit even more violence against the Palestinian people. Over 40,000 civilians (!) have died in the ten months of hostilities since October 7, 2023 which is a horrifying number.

#Iran

• Iran is outright unwilling to fall for a provocation or to get embroiled into any kind of large-scale hostilities. Iran is facing provocations. The assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran during the inauguration ceremony of the new president is, without a doubt, a provocation.

Read in full

Excerpts from the interview with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for Bridges to the East documentary, Moscow, August 31, 2024 (1/2)

Question: The year 2024 marks 80th anniversary of diplomatic relations with Lebanon as well. Where do Russia-Lebanon relations stand now?

Sergey Lavrov: "The period of recognition” of the Arab states was marked by the Soviet Union providing the broadest possible assistance helping them develop their respective national economies, industries, the social infrastructure, and educational systems.

Diplomatic relations with Lebanon were established in August 1944, right after the Soviet Union established diplomatic relations with Syria. In addition to helping Lebanon develop its statehood, we strongly supported international efforts to put an end to the civil war in the late 1960s and early 1970s. We were against the Israeli aggression during the 2006 war when it attempted to forcefully resolve the threat that the Israeli state believed Lebanon posed to it. This has never stopped since then. Decades of similar developments have clearly shown that these issues cannot be resolved by force, but must instead be addressed by recognising the legitimate rights of the peoples living in that region, including the Palestinians, to their own state. The fact that the “consequences” regularly showed themselves in Israel’s policies towards Lebanon and Syria, such as the illegitimate use of airstrikes against the territories of sovereign states under the guise of fighting terrorism, has remained a serious irritant to this day.

Now that Israel is seeking to achieve the “final solution” to the Palestinian problem by force rather than talks (as some political figures said in the past), Western Jerusalem is ramping up military actions against the entities that they believe support the Palestinians and do so with an extremist slant, namely, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine. Israel wants to destroy the latter which is an exercise in futility. The sides must come to terms instead. Hamas is part of the Palestinian people, just as Hezbollah is part of the Lebanese people. There are resistance movements in Syria and Iraq which Israel considers terrorists as well.

Excerpts from the interview with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for Bridges to the East documentary, Moscow, August 31, 2024 (2/2)

To reiterate, the problems that Israel is seeing as obstacles to its peaceful existence cannot be solved by force. The sides need to sit down and talk and act upon the UN resolution regarding the creation of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. This is the only path forward to achieving lasting and sustainable peace and ensuring Israel’s security. We are very much interested in seeing this happen. These issues cannot be resolved by force.

Lebanon remains in a situation where it is facing new challenges largely due to the crisis in the Gaza Strip and, more broadly, the Palestinian territories. Standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people, Hezbollah has been launching harassing strikes on Israel. However, all of this is relatively small in scale. Israel believes Hezbollah should “stay quiet” and not align with the Palestinians, which Israel mostly sees as Hamas members and which, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s public statement, Israel has committed to destroy.
We remain in contact with our Israeli colleagues through the Foreign Ministry, the Defence Ministry, and the respective security councils from both countries. We are trying to drive home the futility of the attempts to address issues by force without considering alternative paths.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly stated that he is concerned not about creating a Palestinian state, but about the security of Israel as a country. This statement means he refuses to comply with the UN resolution, which is sad and is made even sadder by the fact that Washington stands behind every decision made by Israel. The US blocks all agreements at the UN Security Council that would lead to a full and permanent ceasefire. The Americans continue to supply weapons to Western Jerusalem, which are then used to commit even more violence against the Palestinian people. Over 40,000 civilians have died in the ten months of hostilities since October 7, 2023 which is a horrifying number. The collective punishment of the Palestinians for the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack by Hamas (which we condemned) are no less criminal which is expressly stated in international humanitarian law.

To follow up on Lebanon, that country’s governmental structure, which ensures equal and balanced representation of ethnic and religious groups, sets it apart from other countries. Over the past two years or so, following the most recent elections, they have been unable to form governing structures, and drawing Lebanon into the conflict by “punishing” Hezbollah and the entire Lebanese people is throwing a wrench into our Lebanese colleagues and partners’ efforts to effectively address this governmental formula.

🇷🇺🇲🇳 On September 3, Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Chairman of the State Great Khural of Mongolia Dashzegve Amarbayasgalan had a meeting in Ulaanbaatar.

💬 Vladimir Putin: I am also very pleased to visit friendly Mongolia.

Together with the Mongolian people we marked a milestone event – an Anniversary of our common victory over the aggressors on the river Khalkhin Gol. In those battles we ensured Mongolia’s independence and territorial integrity.

We have just noted with Mr President in the course of our talks that Mongolia turned out to be a very loyal and reliable ally of the Soviet Union and Russia during our fight with German Nazis during the Great Patriotic War.

Throughout decades Russia and Mongolia have maintained very close and friendly relations, and today they are effectively developing. Trade is growing. We interact through our parliaments; last year our interparliamentary commission held its first meeting.

We give very much importance to interaction between our government authorities. In today's world and in our countries it is an essential addition to the development of contacts between the executive bodies. Direct interaction between the parliaments creates a very good atmosphere and contributes to the creation of a legal framework for such interaction.

Thank you very much for the warm reception.

#RussiaMongolia

🕯 Today, a mourning ceremony was held in Beslan, North Osetia, in memory of the victims of a bloody attack, committed by a group of terrorists on September 1-3, 2004, at the School No.1.

Schoolchildren released 334 white balloons into the sky, in memoriam of the 334 people, who perished as a result of the heinous crime.

The mourning ceremony commenced with a minute of silence at exactly 1.05 pm — the time when an explosion occurred in the school's gymnasium.

#WeRemember

🎙 Remarks by President of Russia Vladimir Putin at a reception marking the 85th anniversary of the victory at Khalkhin Gol (Ulaanbaatar, September 3, 2024)

💬 I am sincerely delighted to visit the hospitable Mongolian land once again and to celebrate, in an impressive setting, the anniversary of our common victory in the Battle of Khalkhin Gol together with our Mongolian friends.

We are paying tribute to Soviet and Mongolian soldiers who fought in those intense and bloody battles. Their feat will forever be remembered by our nations, and it will be emblazoned in the history of Russia and Mongolia. The courage and fortitude of the heroes of Khalkhin Gol stopped a dangerous enemy who hatched far-reaching plans to occupy the entire territory of Mongolia.

The victory at Khalkhin Gol greatly influenced the destiny of the region and the entire course of World War II. After defeat, Japan refrained from attacking the Soviet Union, and our country was able to deploy all its forces, including fresh Far Eastern divisions, against Nazi Germany.

Of course, we remember the substantial support offered to us by the Mongolian nation during World War II, during the Great Patriotic War. Mongolia assisted the front by supplying food, warm clothing and also raised funds to manufacture tanks and aircraft.

Loyal to the traditions of combat brotherhood laid down by our fathers and grandfathers, Russia and Mongolia continue to actively collaborate and to develop their all-encompassing strategic partnership. I would like to stress that Russia has always aimed to strengthen friendly relations with Mongolia; it has perceived and continues to perceive this as one of its foreign policy priorities.

🤝 In turn, we appreciate the fact that Mongolia also steers towards mutually beneficial cooperation with us. Our current talks with President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh and other Mongolian leaders have clearly confirmed this. All meetings were traditionally constructive and substantive and allowed to review a wide range of issues and topical regional and international problems, and to chart future prospects of our diverse partnership.

The people of Mongolia have a nice saying: “Choose a new robe but an old friend.” I am convinced that we will certainly raise and address the most ambitious objectives, while relying on our time-tested solid friendship. We will actively expand our collaboration in traditional sectors, and we will launch cooperation in new high-tech spheres; we will work hand-in-hand to strengthen the entire range of our bilateral partnership for the benefit of the peoples of Russia and Mongolia.

In conclusion, I would like to wholeheartedly congratulate the President of Mongolia, as well as all Mongolian and Russian citizens who are present here, on the 85th anniversary of the glorious victory in the battle on the river Khalkhin Gol.

I would like to offer a toast to our common victory, to further development of Russian-Mongolian comprehensive strategic partnership, to the health of the President of Mongolia, Mr Khurelsukh, and everyone present here, and for the well-being and prosperity of our nations.

#RussiaMongolia

⚡️ Russian Foreign Ministry's Ambassador-at-Large on the Kiev Regime's War Crimes Rodion Miroshnik:

💬 Today's shelling of the Sokol market in Donetsk by the Ukrainian Armed Forces claimed a horrific toll of 13 people being hit, killing three people, including two children, leaving others injured.

According to the latest data of the DNR Joint Centre of Control and Coordination, during the shelling of the Sokol market in Donetsk three people were killed: a girl born in 2011, a teenage boy born in 2009, and a man born in 1989.

Another child – a boy born in 2013 – was moderately wounded.

Another eight people also sustained injuries and wounds from the shelling: men born in 1976, 1984, 1986, 1994, 1996 and 1998, and women born in 1975 and 1988. Two of the victims are in serious condition, the other six – with injuries of moderate severity.

📹 © RIA NOVOSTI

🎙 President of Russia Vladimir Putin took part in the 9th Eastern Economic Forum plenary session (September 5, 2024)

Full text of the statement and answers to media questions

💬 President Putin: We have designated the development of the Far East as a national priority for the XXI century. The significance and correctness of that decision have been confirmed by life itself, the challenges we have recently encountered and, most importantly, the objective trends that are gaining momentum in the global economy, when the main business ties, trade routes and the overall development are increasingly shifting towards the East and the Global South.

Our Far Eastern regions offer direct access to these growing emerging markets, helping us overcome the barriers which some Western elites are trying to create worldwide. The most important thing, as I have already mentioned, is that the Far East is a huge area for implementing business initiatives, launching complex projects and creating whole new industries.

❗️ The Far East has become a crucial factor for strengthening Russia’s standing in the world and our flagship in the new global economic reality. The further development of the Far East will largely determine the future of our country as a whole.

<...>

Overall, representatives of more than 75 countries and territories are taking part in the forum’s events. It is extremely important that such discussions are complemented with substantive business dialogues and result in the adoption of investment decisions and trade agreements. I would like to say that over a thousand agreements worth in total more than 10.5 trillion rubles were signed during the previous three forums.

☝️The Eastern Economic Forum has rightfully become a respected venue for establishing reliable business contacts and discussing the strategic development of the Russian Far East and the Asia-Pacific region as a whole.

Other key talking points

• Russia's economy ranks fourth in the world in terms of GDP by purchasing power parity;

• We and our BRICS partners use national currencies in 65% of trade settlements with each other;

• We did not refuse to settle in dollars, we were denied settlements, and we were simply forced to look for other options;

• More than 30 countries are willing to cooperate with BRICS, and some of them are ready to join the group;

• The new members who joined BRICS this year are self-sufficient, have rapidly growing economies and will make their contribution to the development of the grouping;

• [Kiev regime's Kursk incursion] goal of trying to make us nervous, to relocate our forces, to halt our military adavance in Donbass was not achieved. Our Armed Forces stabilised the situation and stepped up their offensive.

#EEF2024

Embassy comment on the most recent spike of the anti-Russian campaign in UK media

❗️ The Embassy has taken note of efforts by certain UK right-wing conservative forces, even though they have been relegated to the local political backstage, to persist in fuelling anti-Russian hysteria in sponsored media outlets.

On top of habitual twisted facts and fictional plots the last few days have seen the increased use of grotesque geopolitical constructs, punctuated with the obsession that Russia must be made to suffer a military defeat and collapse.

The reason for this delusional "episode" is, quite obviously, a combination of bad news for the Kiev regime and its handlers in London.

👉 Above all, the confident offensive action of the Russian Armed Forces in Donbass.

👉 The failure of the Kursk gamble, which has only revealed the terrorist inclinations of the marauding Ukrainian military.

👉 The feverish reshuffle in the Ukrainian top brass.

👉 Finally, the West's inability using sanctions traps and pseudo-judicial simulacra to hold back Russia's accelerating development and the augmentation of mutually beneficial relations between our country and its partners around the world. The Eastern Economic Forum, currently taking place in Vladivostok, provides ample evidence in this regard.

Of particular cynicism against this background are the soundbites produced by certain British politicians who bear personal responsibility for prolonging the conflict, such as former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in support of the total mobilisation of the Ukrainian population, including its youth.

These bloodthirsty exhortations seem to illustrate the determination of the London ideologues behind the "Ukrainian project" to buy time at any cost as it approaches its inevitable finale.

☝️ We are convinced that the British people do not share the irrational Russophobia, misguided exceptionalism and the sense of impunity that encourage certain figures of the local political establishment to incite the Kiev regime to wage a self-destructive "war to the last Ukrainian".

🎙 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s answer to a question of the Moscow.Kremlin.Putin programme (Vladivostok, September 4, 2024)

❓ Question: So far, reports are coming in only from Reuters, but often such media leaks are eventually confirmed. The United States allegedly intends to supply missiles with a range of 300−900 kilometres for F-16 fighters. How could you comment on this?

💬 Sergey Lavrov: I am tired of commenting, and nothing surprises me anymore. The Americans have already passed the “threshold” they set themselves. They are being egged on to it. Zelensky can see this, and he is taking advantage of the situation.

However, they should understand that one should not joke about our “red lines.” They know their location very well.

So far, the obsessive power struggle (when Democrats want to prove themselves “tougher” than the Republicans or vice versa) is leading towards an escalation. I am convinced that there are reasonable people exercising certain sway in the United States. I hope that the interests of the United States will be taken into account.

I would like to note a statement by National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby who said that one should be very careful about expanding support for Ukraine, so as not to start World War III because one would feel sorry for Europe. In effect, their genetic code tells them that no one will dare touch them. This destroys all principles on which Soviet-US agreements on strategic stability hinged; these agreements were later reaffirmed and developed with the Russian Federation. For some reason, their feeling of mutual deterrence is becoming eroded, and this is dangerous.

❓ Question: What are they counting on then? They will supply weapons all the time. Certainly, they should realise that it is impossible to defeat Russia.

💬 Sergey Lavrov: You should ask them.

I do not know what they are counting on. They believe that this “tough” stand on Russia is another argument for obtaining extra votes in the context of the logic of American exceptionalism. Such logic implies that they can do what they want, and no one will dare to offend them. This is what we are seeing today. However, no one, including me, knows what’s on their mind.

You should go to New York City, or tell your colleagues to ask these questions.

🎙 Russian MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's interview with RT at the 2024 Eastern Economic Forum.

Key points

• NATO doesn’t care about Ukraine. NATO countries are only interested in a “strategic defeat of Russia”, not the safety or security of the region;

• Sanctions against RT is another step towards freedom of speech destruction by the US, a sign of a deep crisis in the US democratic system;

• Durov's detention in France should be a sobering example for those who believed that freedom of speech matters [it doesn't] to the West.

Full video 👆
You can also watch the interview in full on Odysee or Rumble

🤝 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov holds a meeting with the Secretary-General of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf Jasem Mohamed AlBudaiwi

📍Riyadh, September 9, 2024

🤝 Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov takes part in the ministerial meeting of the Russia-Gulf Cooperation Council Strategic Dialogue

📍Riyadh, September 9, 2024