Embassy of Russia in Ireland

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s address to the participants in the 3rd international youth forum Russia-Africa: What Next? (Moscow, April 24, 2024) 💬 Over the past years, this forum has established itself as one of the key platforms for promoting the youth dimension in our cooperation with African countries. I believe that your mission involves supporting efforts to implement the agreements resulting from last year’s Russia-Africa Summit in St Petersburg. This meeting at the highest level laid a solid foundation for generating steady momentum in promoting multifaceted ties between Russia and Africa in the near future. The summit’s outcome documents – the Declaration and the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum Action Plan 2023–2026 – set forth our converging approaches on these matters. According to the updated Foreign Policy Concept as approved by President Vladimir Putin on March 31, 2023, one of the unquestionable priorities for us today is to forge lasting strategic partnerships with African countries. 🌍 Russia views the African continent as a global centre with its own unique identity in the emerging multipolar global architecture. The fact that our African friends have made great strides in their national development is a source of great satisfaction for us. This is largely attributable to proactive youth engagement in political, economic and humanitarian processes. ❗️ Russia reaffirms its commitment to helping African countries strengthen their sovereignty and security in all aspects and dimensions. We will keep up our proactive efforts to promote capacity building in African countries, including by increasing the number of scholarships we award, as well as by opening branches of Russian universities and schools across the continent, and developing a network of open education centres. 📄 Full transcript

🎙 Statement by Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzia at UNSC debate on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question 🔸 For seven months now, the Middle East has been engulfed in a violent conflict that has already claimed the lives of more than 34,000 civilians in Gaza. The escalation is spiraling daily, spreading to other countries of the region, for whom the threat of a full-scale armed confrontation has started to loom for the first time in decades. 🔸 It took Washington six months to finally realize that it had lost all leverage over Israel and ended up in a situation where "the tail was wagging the dog" - when Tel Aviv was actually dictating its terms, demanding unconditional American support for any of its reckless decisions. 🔸 Israel's cleansing of Gaza has already set a historic anti-record for the death toll of UN humanitarian personnel - more than 240 people have been killed. <...> Israeli military has been hitting humanitarian convoys, blocking access, slowing down the passage of supplies. Western countries criticize them fiercely only if such actions kill Western citizens. 🔸 The disdainful attitude of the West towards certain states and their rights, dividing the world into friends, who stand above the law, and foes, whose legitimate interests can be ignored, has brought the Middle East to the brink of a major war. 🔸 The international community has failed (because of the position of one State, which has blocked all our efforts) to protect the Palestinians from the Israeli slaughter. Nor has it been able to alleviate their humanitarian suffering. Nor has it been able to stop the spiral of violence. 🔸 We are convinced that recognizing the status of Palestine as equal to Israel will contribute to a long-term settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the basis of the well-known international legal framework approved at the United Nations and reinforced by the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002. Read in full

🎙 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks during a meeting of the United Russia General Council’s Commission on International Cooperation and Support for Compatriots Abroad 📍 Moscow, April 16, 2024 #Election2024 • The high interest in voting [during the 2024 Presidential election] was overwhelming, which was confirmed by high turnout as well as the large number of journalists, public figures and representatives from compatriot organisations who observed the elections. • The electoral process took place amid the hybrid war against Russia unleashed by the collective West. <...> Nevertheless, the Russian Foreign Ministry and its foreign missions have coped with the task. Hundreds of thousands of Russians got the chance to exercise their constitutional right. #BRICS • The action plan [of Russia’s current BRICS chairmanship] envisages active work in three main areas, including politics and security, the economy and finance, and cultural and humanitarian contacts. <...> The key priority now is to ensure the new members’ harmonious integration into the strategic partnership architecture and to preserve the effective operation of all existing BRICS mechanisms. • In addition to working on the partner states category, the BRICS members are going to deepen dialogue with friendly countries in the BRICS Plus/BRICS Outreach format. They are planning to involve our associates in the EAEU, CIS, CSTO and the SCO by using this format. • We are interested in enhancing the role of the BRICS states in the currency, financial and trade systems, developing interbank cooperation, expanding the use of their national currencies in mutual trade and pooling efforts in creating a rating agency and the association’s exchange. Read in full

❗️ On this day nine years ago, Ukrainian writer and opposition journalist Oles Buzina was assassinated in front of his home in Kiev. He became one of the many victims of the Kiev criminal regime because he posed a threat to it – he publicly criticised and exposed the true nature of the neo-Nazi forces that had gained power as a result of the bloody coup d'état in Ukraine. Buzina urged the then Ukrainian leadership to establish a dialogue with the inhabitants of Donbass and spoke about the need to consolidate the rights of the Russian language, which seriously irritated the post-coup officials in Kiev. He also received threats from Ukrainian radicals because his interpretation of Ukraine's historical path did not coincide with the nationalist ideology. ☝️ Such an active and firm civil position of Oles Buzina cost him his life. A few days before his death, the journalist's personal data, including his home address, appeared on the Myrotrvorets (Peacemaker) extremist website, which contains personal information about all public figures undesirable to the Kiev regime. <...> Despite the fact that condemnation of the murder, condolences to the victim's family and demands for a comprehensive investigation were voiced by the UN Secretary General, OSCE and US State Department officials and many civil society organisations, the perpetrators of his murder were never identified and the suspects were released. After almost a decade, it is clear that the situation with freedom of speech in Ukraine has degraded to a critical level. All media outlets in opposition to the Kiev regime are banned, and any manifestations of dissent are brutally suppressed and erased from the information space. Unwanted journalists, primarily Russian ones, are being hunted down with all possible weapons. <...> ❌ Terrorist methods are being used to implement these criminal plans, while Ukraine's Western handlers and biased human rights organisations continue to turn a blind eye to these evil deeds. Read in full

🇷🇺🇮🇷📞 Russia's President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ebrahim Raisi. The Presidents discussed in detail the situation in the Middle East, escalated by Israel’s air strike at the Iranian diplomatic mission in Damascus and Iran’s retaliation measures. ☝️ President Putin expressed hope that all sides will exercise sensible restraint and will not allow a new round of confrontation that may be fraught with disastrous consequences for the entire region. In turn, Ebrahim Raisi noted that Iran’s actions had been forced and limited. At the same time, he emphasised that Tehran is not interested in further escalation of tensions. Both leaders stated that the unresolved Palestinian-Israeli conflict was the root cause of the current developments in the Middle East. The presidents confirmed Russia and Iran’s principled stance in favour of immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, alleviation of the grievous humanitarian situation and creation of conditions for a political and diplomatic settlement of the crisis. 🤝 During the exchange of views on the current issues of Russia-Iran relations, both leaders expressed their mutual intention to promote steady bilateral cooperation across different areas, including the implementation of mutually beneficial infrastructure projects. President Putin congratulated Ebrahim Raisi and all Muslims of Iran on the end of the holy month of Ramadan and the recently celebrated Eid al-Fitr. #RussiaIran

⚡️ Foreign Ministry statement in connection with the attack on Israeli territory 💬 In the early hours of April 14, a large number of missiles and drones were launched at the territory of Israel. According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry, this attack was undertaken as part of the right to self-defence stipulated in Article 51 of the UN Charter in response to the attacks on Iranian targets in the region, including the strike on the consular section of the Iranian Embassy in Damascus on April 1, which our country strongly denounced. Unfortunately, due to the position adopted by its Western members, the Security Council was unable to provide a proper response to the strike on the Iranian consular mission. We express our extreme concern at yet another dangerous escalation in the region. We have repeatedly warned that the numerous unresolved crises in the Middle East, primarily in the area of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which are often fueled by irresponsible provocative actions, will exacerbate tensions. ☝️ We call on all parties involved in the conflict to exercise restraint. We expect the regional states to resolve the existing problems through political and diplomatic means. We believe it is important for the constructively-minded international players to contribute to this effort. Read in full

⚡️ Заявление МИД России в связи с атакой по территории Израиля 💬 В ночь на 14 апреля по территории Израиля было запущено большое количество ракет и беспилотников. По заявлению МИД Ирана, данная атака была предпринята в рамках права на самооборону в соответствии со статьёй 51 Устава ООН в ответ на нападения на иранские объекты в регионе, включая удар по зданию консульского отдела Посольства ИРИ в Дамаске 1 апреля, который наша страна решительно осудила. К сожалению, из-за позиции западных членов СБ ООН не смог адекватно прореагировать на удар по иранской консульской миссии. Выражаем крайнюю озабоченность в связи с очередной опасной эскалацией в регионе. Неоднократно предупреждали, что неурегулированность многочисленных кризисов на Ближнем Востоке, в первую очередь, в зоне палестино-израильского конфликта, которые зачастую подогреваются безответственными провокационными действиями, будет приводить к росту напряжённости. Призываем все вовлечённые стороны к сдержанности. Рассчитываем, что региональные государства будут решать имеющиеся проблемы политико-дипломатическими средствами. Считаем важным, чтобы конструктивно настроенные международные игроки этому способствовали. ☝️ Обращаем внимание российских граждан, находящихся в Израиле и соседних странах, в первую очередь, Иордании, Ливане и Сирии, на необходимость следить за сообщениями и практическими рекомендациями, публикуемыми на информационных лентах МИД России, официальных сайтах российских заграничных учреждений в упомянутых странах, Консульского департамента и Департамента Ситуационно-кризисный центр МИД России, в том числе в соответствующем разделе обновлённого ресурса – мобильного приложения «Помощник за рубежом».

🤝 Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov took part in the 7th Russia – Central Asia Foreign Ministers meeting 📍 Minsk, April 12, 2024

🚀 On 12 April 1961 Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. The Vostok 1 spacecraft launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 09:07 MSK, orbited the Earth, landed at 10:55 MSK. The entire flight took 108 mins and forever changed the world. This extraordinary achievement of Gagarin and the entire Soviet space program opened a new chapter of space exploration for humankind. This flight became possible due to efforts of a huge number of Soviet scientists and engineers, led by Sergei Korolev, and was a triumph of Soviet space program. This day is commemorated in Russia as a #CosmonauticsDay ☝️Today, Russia is continuing glorious traditions of the Soviet space program. On April 11, 2024, Russia successfully launched its brand new Angara A5 extra heavy space rocket carrying the Orion upper stage and a mass simulator. Importantly, this was the first Angara A5 launch from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russia’s Far East Region. The rocket’s successful launch has confirmed the Russian Federation’s status as a leading space power that fully ensures its sovereignty in terms of space launches from its territory. ✅ Russia has always stood for and is committed to the exclusively peaceful use of space. We advocate the progressive development of space-related science and technology, and equal and mutually beneficial cooperation with all interested parties in the exploration and use of near-Earth space for peaceful purposes. #ForeverFirst #SpaceDay #CosmonauticsDay

📣 Remarks by the Ambassador of Russia to Ireland H.E. Yuriy Filatov "The New Taoiseach and the Same War in Ukraine" (April 11, 2024) 💬 The Department of the Taoiseach has informed that the newly elected Prime Minister of Ireland Simon Harris spoke the other day by phone to Ukrainian president Zelensky, reassuring him of Ireland’s “unwavering support” in the face of the Russia’s “imperialist aggression”. ☝️ No surprise here. This “aggression” talk has been designed and has become obligatory in the US and Europe as an ideological justification for the proxy war the West has been waging against Russia. The Taoiseach simply confirms that Ireland is a part of this war. What is indeed remarkable is the Taoiseach’s readiness to step on a rake of failed Western policy of defeating Russia. It is not going to work and almost everybody knows that even in the West. 💬 Contrary to the Taoiseach’s view, Russia is not and has never been a threat to Europe. The conflict in Ukraine has been intentionally and cynically provoked by the US and its allies to increase military pressure on Russia in futile attempt to force it to abandon its sovereign and independent policy. Russia is defending its own people, as well as its vital security interests and is very much determined to ensure that it is done. ‼️ Peace in Ukraine is impossible without Russia – this is a fact of life and the West, including Ireland, will have to deal with that. Read in full