Open letter to members of the Council of the European Union from People's Artist of Russia and Hero of Labour of Russia, film director Nikita Mikhalkov

First, please do not regard my letter as an attempt to evade the sanctions that were imposed on me, because these sanctions were imposed on me by people whose words or actions cannot be trusted.

You, who consider yourselves to be a civilised democratic society, impose sanctions on someone who expresses his personal opinion in his own country, in his homeland, to his own people in his own language.

In that case, you surely heard and saw me call for awakening of a sense of truth in you and suggesting looking with open eyes at the children killed by the Kiev regime in Donbass, the people burned in the House of Trade Unions in Odessa, the executed prisoners of war, and the torture and humiliation of civilians, in a word, everything that has resulted from your deceitful policy and the betrayal of the Minsk agreements that you signed.

🇷🇺🇧🇷 On January 17, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited the Embassy of the Federative Republic of Brazil in Moscow, where he left a message in the book of condolences in connection with the death of the legendary footballer Pele, noting his outstanding contribution to the development and promotion of football.

During a meeting with Ambassador of Brazil to Russia Rodrigo Baena Soares, the sides emphasised their mutual determination to ensure continuity in the Russian-Brazilian strategic partnership, and confirmed their commitment to strengthening bilateral cooperation in the political, trade, economic, scientific, technological, cultural and humanitarian spheres.

⭐️ President of Russia Vladimir Putin took part in commemorative events dedicated to 8️⃣0️⃣th anniversary of breaking siege of Leningrad

Russia's Head of State visited the Nevsky Pyatachok Memorial Military-Historical Complex in the Leningrad Region, where he laid flowers at the Landmark Stone monument. Later the President took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Motherland monument at the Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery.

Later Vladimir Putin met with Great Patriotic War veterans, residents of besieged Leningrad and representatives of patriotic public associations at the State Memorial Museum of the Defence and Siege of Leningrad.

💬 President Putin: First of all, I would like to address the veterans and to congratulate you on the landmark event, namely, the 80th anniversary of breaking the siege of Leningrad.

This is a major event for all of us – not only for the people of Leningrad, not only for the city, or for the heroic defenders and residents of besieged Leningrad, but for the entire country.

We must ensure that future generations know about and cherish the memory of that page in our history.

💬 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov: The EU has fully succumbed to the US dictate.

It has lost its autonomy 🇪🇺🇺🇸

📉 The Joint Declaration on EU-NATO Cooperation explicitly places the Europeans into a subservient position in relation to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Excerpt from the Foreign Minister's presser on the year 2022 outcomes.

🎙 Из выступления и ответов на вопросы СМИ С.В.Лаврова в ходе пресс-конференции по итогам деятельности российской дипломатии в 2022 году (Москва, 18 января 2023 года).

❓ Как Вы оцениваете шансы, что в этом году удастся организовать переговоры между Россией и ведущими странами Запада во главе с США по Украине?

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💬 С.В.Лавров: О переговорах с В.А.Зеленским речи быть не может. Потому что он законодательно запретил вести переговоры с российским правительством. Вся эта западная болтовня о том, что они-то готовы, а вот мы нет, – это всё от лукавого.

Вы спросили, какая перспектива переговоров между Россией и Западом по украинскому вопросу. Будем готовы на любые серьёзные предложения ответить, рассмотреть их и определиться. Пока таких предложений не видим.

Слышим заклинания в западных столицах, что «ни слова об Украине без Украины». Это всё чепуха. На самом деле Запад решает за Украину. Они же запретили В.А.Зеленскому договориться с Россией в конце марта 2022 года. Значит, решает Запад. Он решил без Украины за Украину, что не время. Сейчас говорят то же самое: что им нужно получить побольше оружия и истощить Российскую Федерацию.

#Итоги2022

🎙 Из выступления и ответов на вопросы СМИ С.В.Лаврова в ходе пресс-конференции по итогам деятельности российской дипломатии в 2022 году (Москва, 18 января 2023 года).

💬 ЕС полностью подчинился американскому диктату 🇪🇺🇺🇸

Апофеозом этого процесса, формировавшегося несколько лет, стало подписание 10 января Совместной декларации НАТО и ЕС о сотрудничестве. Там прямо сказано, что у альянса и Евросоюза задача использовать все политические, экономические и военные средства в интересах «золотого миллиарда».

Остальные, по выражению Высокого представителя ЕС по иностранным делам и политике безопасности Ж.Борреля, – «джунгли», мешающие «цветущему саду» развиваться. Поэтому их необходимо переформатировать, подстроить под свои нужды, превратить в колонии нового типа и безжалостно выкачивать оттуда ресурсы новыми методами. Средства известны: демонизация, шантаж, санкции, угрозы силой и многое другое.

Сейчас более заметна линия Запада на разрушение традиционных связей исторических партнеров в разных регионах, их фрагментация и дестабилизация. Видим это на Балканах, на постсоветском пространстве, особенно если проанализировать действия США, их «клиентов» и «сподручных» в Центральной Азии, в Закавказье.

Всё происходящее вокруг Украины долго зрело. В 2004 г. был первый «майдан». Тогда впервые из уст европейских официальных лиц прозвучало, что Украина должна выбирать: с кем она – с Западом или с Россией. С тех пор это «или-или» последовательно продвигалось в политике Запада по отношению к этому региону. Тех, кто рассчитывал, что его исторические узы, родственные связи, традиции и религиозные убеждения связывают его с Российской Федерацией «перемалывали», исключали из политической жизни, применяли к ним меры уголовного преследования. Это включало убийства непокорных журналистов и политиков, закрытие СМИ, не отражавших «официальную» точку зрения. Создание полицейского, нацистского государства шло полным ходом.

💬 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov: The EU has fully succumbed to the US dictate.

It has lost its autonomy 🇪🇺🇺🇸

📉 The Joint Declaration on EU-NATO Cooperation explicitly places the Europeans into a subservient position in relation to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Excerpt from the Foreign Minister's presser on the year 2022 outcomes.

🇷🇺🇧🇾 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks at a meeting with Foreign Minister of the Republic of Belarus Sergey Aleinik

📍 Minsk, January 19, 2023

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💬 Sergey Lavrov: Our and your Western neighbours have openly stated their goal of curbing our and the Union State’s development. The West is trying, in every possible way, to encourage the non-systemic opposition that is working abroad against the interests of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation.

Our position is absolutely clear. We will discuss it today in detail as relates to further steps at the meeting of the two collegiums of the Belarusian and Russian foreign ministries. We have prepared several reports.

☝️ I am sure that the agreements we will sign following today’s discussion will facilitate the further implementation of the programme of our countries’ coordinated foreign policy actions.

#RussiaBelarus

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to media questions during a joint news conference with Foreign Minister of Belarus Sergey Aleinik following the meeting of the Boards of the Foreign Ministries of Russia and Belarus

📍 Minsk, January 19, 2023

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We share the view that the collective West has actually turned Ukraine into a bridgehead for the continued military-political cultivation of the post-Soviet space and for subversive activities against the Union State. This is creating a direct threat to the vital interests of Russia and Belarus.

☝️ However, in practice this Western blitzkrieg did not succeed either in Russia or Belarus.

#OSCE

I mentioned what was done to suppress information about the flagrant violation of international humanitarian law in the east of Ukraine as a result of the Kiev regime’s activities. The West remained silent on this topic, covering up these misdeeds.

The OSCE principles and its institutions are being discredited by the Special Representative on Freedom of the Media who keeps increasingly silent when it comes to obvious infractions on the part of the Ukrainian regime or its Western sponsors.

#NATO

Not only did the West ignore these warnings and start to develop (militarily) Ukrainian territory, but it also widely encouraged, in theory and practice, the neo-Nazi manifestations of the Ukrainian regime following the coup, which (judging by it all) could not have taken place without the consent (or even support) of the United States.

#Ukraine

All of that unfolded against the background of Zelensky’s ensuing moves who, just like Poroshenko, was elected under the banner of bringing peace to Donbass. Instead of following up on his election promises, he instantly did an about-face and declared in August 2021 that if someone identifies as a Russian in terms of culture, language or traditions, they should clear out for Russia. All of that was unfolding amid total silence on the part of the West, or rather, was encouraged by it.

🎙FM S.Lavrov: Everything that is happening around Ukraine has been in the making for a long time. The first Maidan protest took place in 2004 when European officials declared for the first time that Ukraine had to choose sides and decide who it was with, the West or Russia.

Those who chose the wrong side or believed that their historical and family ties, and their traditions and religious beliefs bonded them with the Russian Federation (even though they lived in Ukraine), were at first more or less delicately, and then ruthlessly, ground down, excluded from political life and criminally prosecuted. They killed intractable journalists and politicians and closed media outlets that did not promote the official point of view. The creation of a police-run Nazi state was in full swing.

In fact, it has now been created with the blessing of the West. They used the “either with the West or Russia” choice to identify those who were against the West and proceeded to severely punish them.

🎙FM S.Lavrov: A coup against the government happened in Ukraine in 2014 after Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland handed out cookies to terrorists, and the Americans instantly recognised the coup organisers. But what about Europe?

The US could not care less about it, ignoring that it was Europe which acted as a guarantor in the agreement with the Ukrainian president. Do you remember what Victoria Nuland suggested to US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt regarding the way he had to treat the EU?

She used a four-letter word in English to describe what they think of the EU.

The putschists who came to power said they would expel Russians from Crimea. When Crimea and eastern Ukraine refused to obey the people who came to power illegally after staging a bloody coup, the coup organisers declared war on them. They went to war against their own people. They burned 48 people alive in Odessa’s Trade Union House. There is video evidence out there for everyone to see.

💬FM S.Lavrov: Washington’s policy of dictate in international affairs means precisely that the Americans can do anything anywhere they want, even at the other end of the Earth. They do what they think is necessary.

Как заявил Директор СВР России С.Е.Нарышкин, в Службу внешней разведки поступают достоверные данные о том, что украинские вооруженные силы осуществляют складирование предоставляемых Западом вооружений и боеприпасов на территориях атомных электростанций. Это касается наиболее дорогостоящих и дефицитных для ВСУ ракет к комплексам РСЗО "Хаймарс" и зарубежным системам ПВО, а также артиллерийских боеприпасов большого калибра. Только за последнюю неделю декабря 2022 г. через железнодорожную станцию "Рафаловка" на Ровенскую АЭС из-за рубежа было доставлено несколько железнодорожных вагонов смертоносного груза.

Расчет строится на том, что ВС России, понимая опасность ядерной катастрофы, не станут наносить удары по территориям АЭС. Если же масштабная детонация складов и разрушение атомной станции случится по вине очередной "заблудившейся" ракеты украинской ПВО, то вину на трагедию всегда можно будет списать на Москву.

‼Это - метод, который часто используют международные террористы.

🇷🇺 Statement of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service:

⚡️ Sergey Naryshkin, Director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, said that his agency getting reliable reports that the Ukrainian armed forces have been using nuclear power stations to store arms and ammunition supplied by the West. This includes the most expensive and rare systems the Ukraine Armed Forces are receiving for the HIMARS MRLs and foreign air defence systems, as well as large-calibre artillery shells. Several train cars carrying the deadly cargo from abroad transited through Rafalovka station to the Rovno NPP in the last week of December 2022 alone.

The plan of the Kiev regime is clear. The Ukrainian Armed Forces command hides the ammunition in the rear, using nuclear reactors as their shields, just like when the Banderites shell cities in Donbass and other borderline Russian regions from behind the backs of innocent Ukrainian civilians. The idea is that the Russian Armed Forces would not target NPPs with their strikes, fearing a nuclear disaster. If the warehouses detonate or a nuclear power station is destroyed by yet another Ukrainian air defence missile after it veers off course, they can always blame Moscow for the tragedy. Kiev is confident that this would be the case, considering the tacit approval by the West of the Ukrainian artillery strikes against the Zaporozhye NPP.

❗️ International terrorists often use methods of this kind. However, instead of taking just a few civilians hostage, the Kiev regime uses tens or even hundreds of thousands of civilians in its own and neighbouring countries as hostages. It is our hope that it does not occur to anyone in Kiev to deliberately set off explosions at these warehouses with the expectation that this would enable them to get even more weapons and ammunition from the United States and its allies.

🎙 Address by President of Russia Vladimir Putin to heads of Eurasian Economic Union Member States (January 23, 2023)

💬 On January 1, 2023, Russia took over the chairmanship of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council and the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission.

It is obvious that the Union has every opportunity to become one of the strong, independent, self-sufficient poles in the emerging multipolar world.

Developing the technological potential of EAEU member states, attaining genuine independence and self-sufficiency in this sphere should become one of the most important strategic priorities of our joint work.

🌐 I would like to specifically stress the importance of building mutually beneficial and equal cooperation between the union and external partners and international associations.

Expanding the geography of the EAEU’s international links and contacts with countries in the Asia-Pacific Region, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America would help boost exports of the union’s products and build new logistics chains.

☝️ We count on close cooperation and support from the EAEU member states in the practical implementation of the priorities of Russia’s presidency in 2023.

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🎙Sergey Lavrov: We are not striking at civilian infrastructure. There are many confirmations of this. All damage done to the civilian infrastructure in Ukraine is due to the criminal actions of the Kiev regime that has been purposefully deploying heavy weapons and air defence systems in residential neighbourhoods for months.

The former advisor to the Office of President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, Alexey Arestovich, said honestly (when you saw what happened on a video from Dnepropetrovsk) that these were the actions of Ukraine’s air defence in the city’s residential areas – it downed a Russian missile flying over it.

🎙Sergey Lavrov: Everyone knows that after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Western colleagues in Washington and Europe printed trillions of dollars and euros and started buying up food products as they were frantically worried about a food crisis that the pandemic might lead to.

Following that, the crisis did break out, largely due to the uncontrolled currency issue. Another factor was the totally uncontrolled, politicised and uncompromising transition to the green economy. Our European partners refused at the time to enter into long-term contracts.