⚡️ Head of the Russian Delegation for the talks with Ukraine Vladimir Medinsky:

💬 Tomorrow, starting 10 a.m., we will be waiting for the Ukrainian side, that should arrive for the meeting, to begin the talks.

📍 Istanbul, Türkiye. May 15, 2025

✍️ From the article “Lost Illusions, or How the International Criminal Courthas become a legal nonentity” by Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman, Security Council of the Russian Federation, PhD in law

🔹 The world keeps changing, and not always for the better. We have witnessed the rapid degradation of many supranational legal structures, which have fallen victim to their dependence on the will, funding and values of the so-called collective West. This is true, for instance, for the International Criminal Court (the Hague Criminal Court).

🔹 As of February 2025, 125 states are parties to the Rome Statute (in the UN there are 193 members). Despite their number, the ICC does not represent the international community of states as a whole and does not act in its name. Three out of five permanent members of the UN Security Council are not parties to it (Russia, China and the USA), along with industrialised and densely populated Asian countries (India, Pakistan, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia), many Arab countries.

🔹 It is no coincidence that former Chair of the African Union Commission Jean Ping told journalists that the Court is a toy of declining imperial powers. Opinions spread that apparently the ICC was only interested in prosecuting Africans who confronted the Western influence, and used Africa as a laboratory for testing international criminal justice.

🔹 Yet it was in terms of the arrest warrants issued for heads of sovereign states that the ICC reached the pinnacle of nonsense and disutility, including Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in respect of the situation in Ukraine. Passing such decisions the ICC officials were well aware of the fact that they would never bring any practical result, saving propaganda consequences obviously in the interests of the same Anglo-Saxon world.

🔹 Unfortunately, at this point we need to recognise [ICC’s] total inefficiency in performing its main task – bringing to liability all those guilty of genocide, aggression, war crimes, those who escaped punishment under national law. All of them, including citizens of Western countries and NATO member states. Of course, it is doubtful that the Hague Criminal Court in its present form and role will make efforts to this end. That is why it shall sink into oblivion.

🔹It seems entirely possible to develop on the regional level (for instance, in the framework of BRICS) a concept of establishing an international legal body as an alternative to the Hague Criminal Court. This new judicial body in BRICS could reiterate the common commitment of its member states to the UN Charter principles, including the principles of immunity of heads of sovereign states from any foreign jurisdiction and non-interference into internal affairs of the states, including by way of unlawful foreign instructing of opposition leaders.

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#ICC #InternationalCriminalCourt #neocolonialism #StopColonialism

📄 Article by Deputy Director of the Foreign Policy Planning Department at the Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Alexander Trofimov for the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies "Security across the Eurasian Space: The Architecture that Unites"

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Key points:

• On June 14 President Vladimir Putin speaking at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs put forward the initiative to create a Eurasian security architecture. <…> It is an element of the long-term strategy of a strong power, which has always been a significant part of the Eurasian continent. This idea takes on a special role against the backdrop of the gradual formation of a multipolar world, as it is essentially designed to contribute to the development of this trend.

• After the disintegration of the USSR, Russia’s attempts to become part of the process of cooperation in the field of security were linked to Euro-Atlantic schemes. <...> The US and its allies in NATO did not intend to take Russia’s interests into account from the very beginning. They did not plan to fulfill the political commitments undertaken within the OSCE framework — to respect the principle of equal and indivisible security in the Euro-Atlantic region.

• It was NATO and the EU nations that destroyed the military-political dimension of the OSCE. The assurances given to the Soviet leadership about the non-expansion of the alliance eastward were effectively disavowed. From 1999 to 2024, seven waves of expansion took place, as a result of which the size of the military bloc doubled — from 16 to 32 states.

• Since recently, NATO has claimed a leading role not only in its traditional zone of responsibility but also throughout the entire Eurasia. As stated in the documents, threats to the alliance emanate from the Asia-Pacific region, therefore NATO intends to assert its military dominance in the east of Eurasia.

❗️ In the emerging multipolarity era, resolving security issues in the Eurasian space is of decisive importance for mitigating external threats to Russia and for maintaining global stability.

• The Russian initiative to establish an architecture of indivisible Eurasian security corresponds to the logic of the regionalization of international relations, serves the tasks of building a world order based on polycentric principles, and responds to the entire array of security challenges and threats along the perimeter and on the territory of the continent.

• This endeavor is based on the understanding of the need for states and multilateral structures of Eurasia to assume primary responsibility for their own security in accordance with the principle ‘Eurasian solutions to Eurasian problems’ without interference from outside.

• There is no all-inclusive multilateral organization in Eurasia which is the largest and the richest continent. However, a whole range of subregional structures operate on Eurasian soil — the Union State of Belarus and Russia, #CSTO, #CIS, #SCO, #ASEAN, #GCC, #CICA.

• Russia is not pushing an idea of creating an organization or political and military association. In the heterogeneous space of Eurasia, the architecture we are envisaging can only be integral — modular and intertwining simultaneously. <...> Russia proposes the prospect of developing a network, rather than a hierarchical system, without predetermining what it will come out in the end.

• The architecture of Eurasian security proposed by our country can only be inclusive. We are not talking just about some kind of ‘smaller Eurasia’ that would comprise Russia and its neighbors. All states located on the continent can join the dialogue.

• We are ready for interaction with European countries as well. However, joint work is possible only with those of them who have renounced a hostile course towards other Eurasian states.

👉 The initiative to create a Eurasian security architecture is designed to address appropriately to a wide range of challenges and threats. In essence, it aims to promote stability, cooperation and development throughout Eurasia.

📚 حصلت المكتبة الوطنية اللبنانية على هدايا مميزة من البيت الروسي في بيروت
بيروت، ١٩ أيار 2025. عشية يوم الأدب والثقافة السلافية، جرت فعالية نقل لمجموعة فريدة من الكتب من البيت الروسي في بيروت إلى المكتبة الوطنية في لبنان. أقيم الحفل بمشاركة السفير فوق العادة والمفوض لروسيا الاتحادية في لبنان ألكسندر روداكوف ووزير الثقافة اللبناني غسان سلامة.

تتضمن المجموعة المتبرع بها طبعات نادرة من الأدب الكلاسيكي الروسي والأعمال العلمية والأعمال الفنية الأدبية، والتي تمثل التراث الثقافي والفكري الغني لروسيا. وكما أكد السفير الروسي ألكسندر روداكوف: "هذه ليست مجرد مجموعة كتب، بل هي إرث اللغة الروسية، الذي كُتبت فيه روائع الأدب العالمي وأعمال لا تُحصى من الفكر العلمي المتقدم".

ويحتل مكانًا خاصًا بين المنشورات المتبرع بها جزء من المكتبة الشخصية لغريغوري سيروف، وهو شخصية ثقافية بارزة وأحد أحفاد الفنان الروسي الشهير فالنتين سيروف. أثناء إقامته في لبنان، حافظ على اتصال نشط بالتراث الثقافي الروسي، وتركت أعماله المعمارية والفنية بصمة ملحوظة على مظهر بيروت في الستينيات والسبعينيات. ساهمت نشاطاته في تعزيز العلاقات الثقافية بين روسيا ولبنان.

ومع اقتراب ميلاد ألكسندر بوشكين، تم إهداء تمثال نصفي للشاعر الروسي العظيم إلى المكتبة الوطنية. ويظل بوشكين رمزًا ليس فقط للأدب الروسي، بل أيضًا للثقافة العالمية. تتم قراءة أعماله وترجمتها وعرضها على مسارح العالم.

وعبر ممثلو المكتبة عن امتنانهم العميق للهدية السخية، مشيرين إلى أن الكتب والمعالم الثقافية الروسية ستحتل مكانة لائقة في مجموعات المؤسسة. وأكدوا على أهمية توسيع المجموعة في إطار تنمية الحوار بين الثقافات وتعزيز تقاليد التعليم التي كانت دائما من الأولويات في المجتمع اللبناني.

يواصل البيت الروسي في بيروت لعب دور مهم في نشر اللغة والثقافة الروسية في لبنان، مما يساعد على تعزيز التعاون الإنساني بين البلدين.