🇷🇺 in Cape Town

⚡️ Briefing by Chief of Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops of the Armed Forces of Russia Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov on Ukraine's violation of obligations under Chemical Weapons Convention (July 8, 2024) Key talking points: 💬 The Kiev regime regularly violates the Chemical Weapons Convention. During the special military operation, more than 400 cases of non-lethal toxic chemicals used by the Ukrainian side were registered. • The Ukrainian Armed Forces troops use toxic compounds not only in the course of combat actions, but also to carry out terrorist attacks in liberated territories against a number of Russian political figures. • The existing evidence base proving Ukraine's violating its obligations under the Convention has been submitted to the OPCW's Technical Secretariat, but no response has been forthcoming so far. • Moreover, the Russian Defence Ministry has information about Ukraine's active cooperation with the OPCW's Technical Secretariat, which has ratified an additional agreement on privileges and immunities for technical assistance visits. This agreement will enable Ukraine to use the OPCW for its own benefit, circumventing the existing procedures under the Convention, by imposing on the Organisation its notoriously false conclusions about chemical investigations. • A laboratory with chemical equipment was detected in an industrial zone on the ground floor of the destroyed building in one of the locations near Avdeyevka during engineering reconnaissance. <...> Analysis of the containers showed the presence of sulphuric acid and sodium cyanide suggesting the use of found equipment for the production of toxic substances. • The US is fully in control of the activities of the OPCW. To settle accounts with the 'undesirable' states, Washington has established an attributive mechanism in the OPCW that was used to investigate the use of chemical weapons in Syria. ❗️ According to the available information, the US and Germany, together with Ukraine and the OPCW's Technical Secretariat, are preparing to launch a special mission to investigate the so-called use of chemical weapons in Ukraine, with a view to pressing charges against Russia. One of the so-called 'independent' states is to initiate investigations and plant evidence that Russia used toxic chemicals during the special military operation. Americans have already committed some $400,000 to this end. Read in full

⚡️ This morning, in response to the Kiev regime's attempts to damage objects of Russian power infrastructure and economy, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation delivered a group strike by long-range precision weaponry at objects of the Ukrainian military-industrial infrastructure and AFU aviation bases. The goal of the strike has been achieved. All the assigned targets have been engaged. Statements of the Kiev regime about the allegedly deliberate missile strike launched against civilian facilities by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are false. Numerous published photos and footage from Kiev clearly confirm that the destruction was caused by a Ukrainian air defence missile launched by an anti-aircraft missile system in the city. We note in particular that similar hysterics by the Kiev regime happen for years and every time on the eve of another meeting (summit) of its patrons from the NATO. The goal of such provocations is to ensure further funding for the Kiev regime and the continuation of the war to the last Ukrainian. 🔹 Russian Defence Ministry

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s answer to a question from the Moscow. Kremlin. Putin programme (July 7, 2024)   ❓Question: You said that Joe Biden was a more preferable president for Russia. But we see what is happening now. How would you comment on that? 💬 Sergey Lavrov: It was President Vladimir Putin who said this in reply to a question about which candidate we “favour.” Frankly, it is a pathetic sight. When the system of “American democracy” produces such results and this course of the presidential race, anyone can make their own independent conclusions about the way things are orchestrated and arranged. Take another “democracy,” France. The first round of the presidential election is over there. There can be two rounds, and it appears that the second round was designed to manipulate voters’ will that was expressed during the first round. When candidates can withdraw from the race, and they are convinced to do that to smooth things down for the “victory” of the conservatives or populists, it does not look like democracy. A direct expression of will is the result of public opinion. We know what people think. If the results of the first round were used to form the parliament, France would have seen serious change.

🎙 Russia's President Vladimir Putin took part in a SCO Heads of State Council Meeting in Astana (July 4, 2024) 💬 First of all, I want to greet everybody and, of course, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, following the accession of the Republic of Belarus as a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Russia gives high priority to partnership within the #SCO. We can state with satisfaction that this cooperation continues to develop consistently based on the principles of equality, consideration for each other’s interests, respect for the cultural and civilisational diversity, and cooperation in addressing important security issues. <...> Our countries are increasingly using national currencies for mutual settlements. For example, the share of national currencies in Russia's transactions with SCO members has exceeded 92 percent in the first four months of this year. I would like to reiterate Russia's proposal to establish a payment and settlement system within the SCO. Regular meetings between our economic ministers, finance ministers and central bank governors are making a substantial contribution to the development of trade and investment relations in the SCO space. <...> Naturally, ensuring security within the Member States and along the external borders has always been a key focus of the SCO’s activities. Today, we have made decisions to upgrade the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure into a comprehensive centre that will address all security threats, as well as to establish an anti-drug centre in Dushanbe. The three-year cooperation programme we have approved will further strengthen our efforts to combat terrorism, separatism, and extremism. Read in full

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov answers a question from the Moscow. Kremlin. Putin programme (Astana, July 4, 2024) Question: How important is it that Belarus has joined us in the #SCO? 💬 Sergey Lavrov: Belarus is part of the Union State. We are interested in the Union State taking part in all international processes as a single front. I believe we are going in the right direction.

#Opinion ✍️ Dmitry Trenin, a research professor at the Higher School of Economics and a lead research fellow at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, member of the Russian International Affairs Council. Europe will eventually have to choose between the US and BRICS Read in full Key points: 💬 Rather than setting out to organize a genuine multipolar system based on mutual recognition of each nation’s core interests, <...> the US proceeded to enhance its exclusive and comprehensive dominance. • This year, at the #BRICS Summit in Russia’s Kazan, the group will for the first time include the leaders of Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Another major Eurasian institution is the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (#SCO) <...> to be admitted soon. A number of other Eurasian countries, from Turkey to Thailand and from the Malpes to Mongolia, have voiced their intention to join either BRICS or SCO. • To counter that trend among the members of what we increasingly call the World Majority, Washington has raised the profile of NATO in the Indo-Pacific; strengthened its Cold War-era bilateral and trilateral alliances in the Western Pacific, and founded a new one, #AUKUS, in the South Pacific. ❗️ All these multiple arrangements are completely dominated by the US and are aimed at containing and deterring Washington’s designated primary adversaries: China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea – with one overriding goal of defending America’s hegemonic position. • In contrast to that, neither BRICS nor the SCO is dominated by a single power, or a tandem/triumvirate of nations. BRICS’s recent expansion also suggests that it does not aspire to become a version of the West’s G7, as an elitist steering group, or directoire, for the non-Western world. • Neither BRICS nor the SCO is overtly anti-American or anti-Western: their main focus is internal rather than external, and they have their work cut out for them. • The emerging mutual security space within the SCO will make the continent – minus Western Europe, for the time being – far more stable, whether in terms of strategic stability in major-power relations, regional security systems, or the risks of terrorism. ☝️ Eventually, the countries of Western Europe – or far western Eurasia, if you like – will have to make a choice between staying in the US orbit as America’s power continues to shrink, or reaching out east to a vast and vibrant new world next door.

🌍🇺🇳 Russia calls for better representation of Africa in the UN Security Council Developing countries, or rather the Global South, is underrepresented in the body, while the collective West is overrepresented, which does not reflect the current state of global geopolitics, Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzya said at a press conference. Various countries, including Russia and the United States, have repeatedly called for reform of the UN Security Council, although they disagree on the exact form that reform should take. Subscribe to @sputnik_africa 🔸 TikTok | Sputnik Africa🔸

🌟 On 28 June 2024, St. Petersburg hosted a spectacular celebration known as #ScarletSails, an annual tribute to the city's schoolkids' graduation. This vibrant event has evolved into a highlight of the summer, eagerly anticipated not only by locals but also by visitors to Russia's Northern Capital. "Scarlet Sails" is a large-scale multimedia performance on the Neva River, integrating cutting-edge technologies across a sprawling water expanse measuring 1.8 kilometers by 800 meters. The evening culminates with the departure of brig (sailing ship)"Russia" decorated with scarlet sails amidst a backdrop of fireworks. 📝 The graduates of 1968 were the first to see the solemn passage of ships along the Neva River. That evening a squadron of boats emerged beneath the Kirov Bridge, parading in formation to open the festivities. The Admiral's boat "Leningrad" carried three graduates who opened the celebration. The tradition was interrupted in the 1990s, resumed in 2005. 🌟 Every year up to three million people take part in the festivities. Among them there are happy graduates of secondary schools, their teachers and parents, residents and guests of the city. In recent years, there has been a tradition of inviting distinguished schoolchildren from other parts of Russia to the holiday. In 2024, students from Russia's Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions were invited to the celebration in St. Petersburg.

⚡️ Issue #3 of the Bulletin on our activities of the Russian Federation Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova to protect children during a special military operation (SMO) is available now in English on the official website of the Russian Federation Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Right. The document contains information about activities of the Russian Federation Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the realization of the rights and interests of minors affected by the military actions. The activities of the Commissioner are aimed at guaranteeing state protection of the rights and legitimate interests of children, the realization and observance of the rights and legitimate interests of children by state bodies, local government bodies, and officials. ✅ The Commissioner promotes: • restoration of violated rights and legitimate interests of children; • improving legislation in the Russian Federation concerning the protection of the rights and legitimate interests of children; • international cooperation in protecting the rights and legitimate interests of children; • improving the forms and methods of protecting the rights and legitimate interests of children. Another important area we are leading on the order of Russia's President Vladimir Putin is the reunification of children with their relatives in Ukraine, Russia and other countries. In total, we have already succeeded in reuniting 70 children with 52 families in Ukraine, not counting those children whose parents from Kherson, Zaporozhye, Kharkov regions and other territories in the fall of 2022 were sent by their own decision to the health camps in the Russian south and were unable to pick them up in time. Also, nine children were reunited with five families in Russia. ***

It doesn’t matter where or in what status a child is in Russia, in an orphanage, in a foster family, whether he or she has Russian citizenship or not. If he has a parent with full parental rights, the family has every opportunity to be reunited.

The Commissioner’s Office promptly assists all legal representatives of children. Such work has been done since the beginning of the SMO and is of an individual nature. ☝️ Since the beginning of the SMO, representatives of Ukrainian authorities have not officially contacted the Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights. It should be noted that Maria Lvova-Belova is open to interaction with the Ukrainian side, and if official requests were received, they would be considered. Over time, a working channel of communication has developed between the Commissioner’s Office and Ukraine for the exchange of information, verification of data, and coordination of the reunification process. Work through this channel is regular and constructive. 📘 Read more about humanitarian projects and children's stories in the bulletin. * The first Bulletin was presented on April 4, 2023. * The second one — on October 13, 2023.

✍️ Read a NEW article by Russian Consul General in Cape Town Mr Aleksei Malenko published in Cape Times on June 27 in full ☝️ Global structural changes in world geopolitics are clearly visible. New centers of power with BRICS in their core are emerging. Therefore, it is not surprising that more and more states that stand for their own sovereignty are striving to join BRICS or one way or another to expand cooperation with it. ❗️The first colonial ships came to the African continent in the 16th century. Further events are well-known. They should not be forgotten, although I am sure that if the West maintains its hegemony, the trend to rewrite history will reach Africa as well. 🙌 More and more people around the world are beginning to realize that the so-called «democratic world» uses an «iron grip» to rule. By the slightest sign of disobedience they begin to act aggressively. And BRICS, on the contrary, is not a military-political bloc and its activities are not directed against anyone.