Посольство России в Норвегии - Russlands Ambassade i Norge

🗓️ On June 23, 1944, 80 years ago, one of the most large scale & successful strategic offensives of the World War II began — Operation Bagration. In two months of fighting along a front line of more than 1100 km the Red Army reached the Elgava — Dobele — Siauliai — Suwalki — Prague (suburb of Warsaw) — Vistula River line by August 29, liberating the Belarusian SSR, parts of the Lithuanian & Latvian SSRs, and eastern areas of Poland from the Nazi invaders. By the summer of 1944, the Red Army had managed to push German forces away from Leningrad, liberate Crimea & right-bank Ukraine, and reach the Romanian border. However, the Nazi occupiers still controlled a significant part of Belarus, where they had spent three years committing atrocities: burning entire villages with their inhabitants, systematically exterminating millions of civilians & prisoners of war. 🔴 From June 23 to 28, 1944, Soviet Army began an offensive along the front line from Polotsk to Mozyr. It was carried out simultaneously in six sectors. 🔴 Red Army units successfully broke through the German defences and began rapid advances. By July 3, Minsk and Vitebsk were liberated. 🔴 By the end of July, almost all of Belarus was liberated. ⚔️ Several large German groups were surrounded and destroyed: Vitebsk & Bobruisk, then Orsha & Mogilev troops, causing enormous irreparable losses to the enemy. ☝️ As a result of the operation, Army Group Centre was defeated, major rivers Berezina, Neman, & Vistula were crossed, and important bridgeheads on their western banks were captured. The front line moved westwards up to 550–600 km. 🎖 Soviet soldiers and commanders who took part in the operation demonstrated mass heroism, brilliant preparation, & the highest level of military art. Over 1,500 Red Army soldiers of various nationalities were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and hundreds of thousands received orders and medals. #Victory79

🕯 June 22 marks the Day of Memory and Sorrow in Russia. At dawn on June 2️⃣2️⃣, 1941, enemy aviation launched massive attacks on airfields, railway stations, Soviet naval bases and numerous cities along the entire western state border to a depth of up to 250-300 km. This opened one of the most tragic chapters in our country’s history. The Great Patriotic War broke out. Hitler had a lightning war in mind. Operation Barbarossa implied a crushing defeat of the Red Army and the defeat of the Soviet Union within a few months with the help of the hitherto faultless blitzkrieg tactics. Romania, Italy and other countries joined Germany to form a united front against the Soviet Union. However, the Red Army’s fierce resistance and the efforts of all Soviet people foiled the Third Reich’s plans. 🎙 The news about German invasion and the beginning of the war was announced over the radio. At noon on June 22 the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs V.Molotov addressed the Soviet citizens with a phrase that went down in history: “Ours is a righteous cause. The enemy shall be defeated. Victory will be ours”. The Great Patriotic War lasted 1418 days and nights and ended on May 9, 1945 with the victory of the Soviet Union and the complete rout of the Nazi bloc. ❗️ The Soviet people perished amounts to 40% of all human losses in WWII, i.e. 26.6 million people! Of them, more than 8.7 million died in combat, 7.42 million were intentionally exterminated by the Nazis in the occupied territories, and over 4.1 million died from the atrocious conditions of the occupation regime. • Since 2009, the day marked by the Candle of Memory nationwide action. Candles are lit throughout Russia in the silence of the night in memory of all those who died during the Great Patriotic War protecting our peaceful life. Since 2020, an annual nationwide minute of silence has been held at 12:15 Moscow time the exact time when the Soviet government announced Nazi Germany’s invasion. 🔗 Read our full material for more information #Victory79 #WeRemember

🎙 Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s comment on NATO countries’ defence expenditure report (June 20, 2024) 💬 On June 17, the North Atlantic Alliance published an updated version of collected defence expenditure data from its member states. According to the report, the number of states that expect to meet the alliance’s target of allocating at least 2 percent of GDP to defence will reach 23, with a cumulative total of $1.474 trillion this year. In simple words, the champions of democratic values, which the members of the bloc consider themselves to be, have been inflating financial resources they channel to destabilise global security for ten years now. And all along, NATO governments continued to lie to their own citizens while using their taxes to escalate the military situation in Europe and beyond. They have been indoctrinating taxpayers for years, maintaining the myth of an alleged threat posed by Russia and China just to remove handsome amounts from their wallets. This disinformation underlies NATO military plans, and armies are being prepared for an eventual confrontation with their “major enemy.” ❗️ It has long become clear to many representatives of the international community, including our country, that the main beneficiary of these policies is the United States and its defence companies. Most of the funds allocated by other NATO members will be used to pay for their products. Unfortunately, the European members of the alliance continue to obediently adopt policies dictated by Washington, while undermining their own economic and social progress, inducing an even deeper crisis. In this context, it is symbolic that the NATO defence expenditure update was published on the same day when outgoing Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met with US President Joe Biden. The idea was for Stoltenberg to deliver a performance report to his “boss” in the hope that his accomplishments would be considered for his future employment.

🇷🇺🇻🇳 Russia's President Vladimir Putin and President of Vietnam To Lam made statements to the media (June 20, 2024) 💬 Vladimir Putin: Russia places great emphasis on further strengthening the Russian-Vietnamese comprehensive, long-standing and friendly relations, our strategic partnership. Our ties continue to expand and progress in the spirit of equality, mutual respect and consideration of each other’s interests. Our countries are linked by a strong bond of shared history. Next year will mark 75 years of diplomatic relations between Russia and Vietnam. <...> Today, Comrade President and I have adopted a statement that supports the principles of the Russian-Vietnamese comprehensive strategic partnership and announces new guidelines for our joint work in the future. ☝️ I would like to mention the tangible benefits our friends have derived from the Free Trade Agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union. Enacted in 2016, it has since then vastly promoted growth in Russian-Vietnamese trade through favourable conditions for access of goods and services to each other’s markets, also fostering investment, technology exchange and innovation. Equally important is that our countries are consistently pursuing the transition to settlements in national currencies and striving to create sustainable channels of cooperation in lending activities and banking. ⚛️ A strategic point of our bilateral cooperation is the energy sector. <...> Russia and Vietnam have excellent opportunities for cooperation in renewable energy. <...> Another promising area for expanding bilateral cooperation is nuclear energy. We consider our cooperation on the Vladivostok – Ho Chi Minh City maritime transport corridor, a large-scale infrastructure project, to be highly promising. Since its opening in 2022, this corridor has facilitated regular cargo shipments with container ships operating on a weekly basis. Currently, more than 3,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students from Vietnam are studying in Russian universities. 🤝 Russia's and Vietnam's respective stances on these issues are largely in accord or closely aligned. Our countries remain committed to the principles of the rule of international law, sovereignty, and non-interference in countries' domestic affairs. They coordinate their efforts on key international platforms, including the UN, as well as within the #RussiaASEAN dialogue and at summits in East Asia. During our discussion on the situation in the Asia-Pacific region, we expressed mutual interest in building a strong and reliable security architecture in the Asia-Pacific region based on the principles of the non-use of force and peaceful settlement of disputes, with no room for closed military-political blocs. Read in full #RussiaVietnam

🎙 Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Chairman of State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Kim Jong-un made press statements following Russia-DPRK talks (Pyongyang, June 19, 2024) 💬 We prioritise strengthening the traditionally friendly and neighbourly relations between Russia and the DPRK that are rooted in the glorious traditions of our shared history. Allow me to remind you that the Soviet Union played an essential role in liberating Korea from the Japanese colonial rule. This year, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea marks 75 years since concluding its first international agreement – and it was a treaty with our country. Key talking points: • Today, we held constructive talks covering the entire scope of our practical cooperation. We signed a new interstate treaty, the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, which outlines large-scale objectives and guidelines for deepening Russia-DPRK links for the long term. This is a truly breakthrough document • Our countries are genuinely interested in continuing most active cooperation between the senior officials of our economic agencies, parliaments, law enforcement, security, foreign policy agencies, and between our public organisations and citizens. • The Treaty on Comprehensive Partnership signed today contemplates, among other things, mutual assistance in the event of aggression against one of the parties thereto. • Our countries consistently defend the ideas of creating a more just and democratic multipolar world order. • Both Russia and Korea conduct an independent and autonomous foreign policy and do not accept the language of blackmail and dictate. We are against the practice of applying politically motivated sanctions and restrictions. • Notwithstanding the external pressure, our countries are successfully developing on a sovereign and independent basis, they have rendered and will continue to render each other an all-round support as genuine friends and good neighbours. • The propaganda cliches reproduced time after time by the Westerners are no longer able to disguise their aggressive geopolitical designs, including in Northeast Asia. Our opinions regarding the root causes of escalation of the military-political tension coincide. They include the US confrontational policy of expanding its military infrastructure in the sub-region, which is accompanied by a substantial increase in the scope and intensity of various military exercises involving the Republic of Korea and Japan, which have a hostile nature towards the DPRK. • Russia is ready to continue its political and diplomatic efforts to eliminate the threat of the recurrence of an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula and to build an architecture of long-term peace and stability there based on the principle of the indivisible security. • I am confident that today’s talks will contribute to further development of friendship and partnership between Russia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and to strengthening of security across the entire region. 📄 Read in full #RussiaDPRK 🇷🇺🇰🇵

⚡️ Comment by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on the Ukraine conference in Switzerland 💬 The other day, Burgenstock, Switzerland, hosted the so-called Ukraine peace summit. Kiev and Western capitals did their best to present it as a universal event. However, this wishful thinking has ended in a complete fiasco. Contrary to the attempts of Zelensky and his Anglo-Saxon masters, almost half of the 160 invited guests refused to engage in political tourism. A striving to involve as many countries of the Global South as possible has failed. <...> The failure of the Swiss “gathering” was quite predictable. This was bound to happen because the Nazi Kiev regime and its Western masters did not intend to search for ways of resolving the Ukraine crisis by peaceful means from the very beginning. They are not interested in peace in Ukraine, they need further confrontation, escalation and expanded hostilities to implement their unrealisable dream of inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Russia. According to well-informed sources, Andrey Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, discussed with foreign delegations in Burgenstock additional weapons deliveries for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The Anglo-Saxons and their Ukrainian puppets are trying to camouflage their aggressive intentions by using the completely bankrupt “Zelensky formula.” Its authors in the United States and on Bankovaya Street are trying to portray it as the only foundation for a peace settlement. They are insistently imposing it on the international community, while disregarding the opinion of other parties and their desire to make their own contribution to resolving the crisis. The same happened in Switzerland. Cynical manipulations with seemingly nice-sounding (but absolutely inappropriate for the Burgenstock meeting) provisions of the “Zelensky formula,” including nuclear security, for obtaining support from Asian, African and Latin American countries, failed to help the organisers of the “summit.” This substandard ploy and open quackery highlight the real intentions of the West and the pro-Bandera regime in Kiev once again. The lack of consensus among participants also confirms the zero result of the Alpine “get-together.” Far from all delegates agreed to support the openly anti-Russia concluding communique. At first, 12 delegations refused to sign it, and later their number reached 14 [now 15], including India, Indonesia, Jordan, Iraq, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, the Republic of South Africa and other influential states. Quite possibly, the number of these countries will increase. ❗️ It has become completely obvious that the Global Majority rejects the options of Kiev and the West for resolving the Ukraine crisis. It perceives their far from peaceful essence and does not want to be guided by the United States and its satellites. We are confident that the world will continue to realise more clearly that the peace initiative, voiced by President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in his June 14 remarks at the Russian Foreign Ministry, shows a real way towards a sustainable peace settlement. <...> The West and Kiev should stop their eyewash and trickery that aim to channel the discussion along false lines by misleading the international public and tampering with and misplacing the cause and effect of the Ukraine crisis. They have to understand that there is no reasonable alternative to the Russian President’s peace plan. The sooner they comprehend this, the faster the real process of resolving the conflict and ending hostilities will begin. ☝️ Otherwise, the terms for launching talks will be much worse for them. <...> Events similar to the Burgenstock “gathering” cannot create favourable conditions for truly serious dialogue to attain a truly comprehensive, sustainable and equitable peace; nor can they serve as a platform for such dialogue. Read in full

✈️ On June 18, 1937, the now legendary and back then deemed impossible non-stop flight was undertaken by Soviet aviators through the "air road not taken before" — Moscow - North Pole - Vancouver. The crew consisting of commander Valery Chkalov, co-pilot Georgy Baidukov and navigator Aleksander Belyakov pursued an ambitious goal: for the first time in history to "connect" the continents by the shortest route - across the Arctic Ocean. Especially for this and other long-distance flights, the Soviet aircraft engineer Andrey Tupolev in just one year created a single-engine ANT-25 with an extended wing. This design allowed to take more fuel and also increased the machine's planning ability. 🧊The flight, which lasted a total of 63 hours and 16 minutes, was conducted under extreme conditions. Due to Arctic frosts, ice had to be cut off from the cockpit windows manually, and the engine had to be cooled with tea and coffee water (the water reserves intended for this purpose were frozen). Due to cloud fronts pilots had to either pilot the aircraft blindly or change course, which resulted in overconsumption of about 300 litres of fuel. The flight of Valery Chkalov's team became one of the biggest events in the history of world aviation. It demonstrated the advanced character of Soviet achievements in aircraft construction, proved to the whole world the highest professionalism and courage of Soviet aviators. 🤝 The three pilots feat was widely covered in the press - both Soviet and American. US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt personally received the crew in the Oval Office of the White House. Instead of the planned 15-minute conversation, he chatted with the Soviet crew for 1 hour and 40 minutes. #FunFact (not so fun at the time): while preparing the flight, a network of radio stations was put in place along the entire Northern Sea Route. In addition, the flight was planned specifically when the drifting polar station "North Pole-1" under the leadership of Ivan Papanin worked in June 1937. The pilots even managed to get a weather report from the station, but just during the passage of this area on ANT-25 the antenna of the onboard radio station failed. So the crew travelled over the Arctic Ocean without any communication.

👩‍🚀 #OnThisDay 61 years ago, Soviet cosmonaut & parachute enthusiast Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space. Her mission aboard the Vostok-6 spacecraft was a complete world sensation, inspired millions of women in the Soviet Union and abroad. The issue of launching a female cosmonaut was raised immediately after Yury Gagarin’s triumphant return from orbit. The goal was to compare the impact of outer space on male and female organisms and to study the possibility of launching civilian specialists into space in the future. 🚀 The Vostok-6 blasted off the Baikonur Cosmodrome on June 16 1963. The flight itself lasted for two days, 22 hours and 50 minutes, the spacecraft orbited Earth 48 times. Until now Tereshkova remains the only female cosmonaut to undertake a solo space mission. 🎖 Valentina, then only 26, lifted off as a Lieutenant and came back a Captain. Three days after landing, she was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union title. Later, she received Hero of Socialist Labour of Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Vietnam and Mongolia and became an honorary citizen of 18 Russian and foreign cities. Tereshkova became the 6th Soviet cosmonaut, the 12th person in space and the youngest woman in orbit.

🗓 The XXVII St. Petersburg International Economic Forum took place in St. Petersburg on June 5-8. The Forum continues to steadily enhance its prestige as one of the most important business events in the world. This year, the #SPIEF2024 21,800 people from 139 countries and territories took part in the Forum’s events. The events were attended by more than 120 high-ranking foreign officials, including heads of international organizations and associations, ministers of foreign affairs, heads of diplomatic missions, and the leaders of foreign cities and regions. The largest delegations came from China 🇨🇳 – 192 participants, UAE 🇦🇪 – 105, Zimbabwe 🇿🇼 – 86, Kazakhstan 🇰🇿 – 84, India 🇮🇳 – 80, and Oman 🇴🇲 – 75. 🎙 The key event of the Forum was the plenary session, which includes speeches by Russian President Vladimir Putin and the heads of foreign states: Luis Alberto Arce Catacora of Bolivia and Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe. Despite the enormous sanctions and political pressure exerted on our country, SPIEF has fully confirmed its reputation as a leading international business event that has been established over more than a quarter of a century. 📈 980 agreements totalling over RUB 6.4 trillion were signed on the sidelines of the Forum, attended by 3,550 Russian and foreign companies. 🤝 Active international cooperation that aims to intensify equitable interaction with developing countries was a prominent focus of the programme. The Forum’s Russian and foreign guests were actively involved in such events as the Russian-African Conference ‘Water: More Precious Than Gold’, the EAEU–ASEAN session, and business dialogues with representatives of Azerbaijan, Brazil, Venezuela, India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Oman, South Africa, as well as other countries of Africa and Latin America.

🎙Exceprts from President of Russia Vladimir Putin's remarks at the meeting with the senior officials of the Russian Foreign Ministry (June 14, 2024) 💬 President Putin: This is the task <...>: to outline a vision for equal and indivisible security, mutually beneficial and equitable cooperation, and development on the Eurasian continent in the foreseeable future. What needs to be done to achieve this and on what principles? 👉 First, it is important to establish dialogue with all potential participants in this future security system. <...> 👉 Second, it is crucial to recognise that the future security architecture should be open to all Eurasian countries that wish to participate in its creation. The threat to Europe does not come from Russia. The main threat to Europeans is their critical and ever-increasing dependence on the United States <...>. If Europe wants to continue being an independent centre of global development and a cultural and civilisational pole on our planet, it should definitely maintain good and friendly relations with Russia. Most importantly, we are ready for this. <...> 👉 Third, it is necessary to significantly intensify the dialogue process between multilateral organisations already operating in Eurasia to promote the idea of a Eurasian security system <...>. 👉 Fourth, we believe that the time has come to start a broad discussion of a new system of bilateral and multilateral guarantees of collective security in Eurasia. At the same time, it is necessary, in the long term, to gradually phase out the military presence of external powers in the Eurasian region. <...> 👉 Fifth, an crucial part of the Eurasian security and development system should definitely be the issues of the economy, social well-being, integration, and mutually beneficial cooperation <...>. Through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I instruct you to assist as much as possible in developing international agreements in all these areas. Read in full