85 weeks have passed since the Salisbury incident - no credible information or response from the British authoritie
On 4 March 2018 the Russian citizens Sergei and Yulia Skripal were reportedly poisoned with a nerve agent in Salisbury and were taken to Salisbury District Hospital under obscure circumstances. The UK government accused the Russian state of being responsible for the poisoning. No proofs have been provided.
For more than half a year our nationals have been kept in isolation and under full control of the British authorities. They remain out of the public eye in an unknown location, are deprived of the right to communicate with their relatives, friends, journalists and Russian officials, may not move freely. For its part, Russia has been open and willing to cooperate within the numerous available frameworks.
The following requests and proposals have been sent to the British authorities:
- A proposal to launch a joint investigation into the incident;
- Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office request for legal assistance in the matter of Sergei and Yulia Skripal made within the framework of the investigation of the criminal case opened in Russia (has been denied under the pretext of “national security interests”);
- Embassy’s numerous requests for consular access to the Russian citizens Sergei and Yulia Skripal in conformity with the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and the bilateral 1965 Consular Convention (have been continuously denied under false pretext);
- Russia’s proposal to establish cooperation under paragraph 2, Article IX of the Chemical Weapons Convention (instead of direct collaboration, the British authorities continue to manipulate CWC provisions by resorting exclusively to the obscure procedure of the so-called technical assistance provided by OPCW Secretariat in a non-transparent manner);
- More than 70 Notes Verbales and letters sent to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Home Office and police with dozens of questions concerning the whereabouts of the Russian citizens, symptoms of their poisoning, methods of medical treatment applied to them, course of the police investigation, samples of the biomaterials and chemical agent allegedly used in Salisbury, and evidence, which could help establish the truth.
All these make us believe that the incident in Salisbury is a provocation of the British secret services, and the UK authorities are interested using it in whipping up an anti-Russian hysteria for the sake of their internal political interests, rather than in establishing the truth through an impartial and credible investigation.
British authorities are thus in a gross violation of international law and UK’s obligations under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and the bilateral 1965 Consular Convention, the 1959 European Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 1950 Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
People of Russia, Our dear veterans, Foreign guests, Soldiers and sailors, sergeants, warrant officers and ensigns, Officers, generals and admirals, I wish you all the best on the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. A victory that determined the future of the planet for decades to come and went down in history as the grandest in its scale, significance and moral value. This year, the traditional Victory Day celebrations are being held in Russia on June 24. Exactly 75 years ago, the legendary victors paraded right here, along the Kremlin wall, to commemorate the end of the Great Patriotic War. That parade went down in history as a triumph of unprecedented scale, the triumph of good over evil, of peace over war, and life over death.
75 years have passed since the end of the Great Patriotic War. Several generations have grown up over the years. The political map of the planet has changed. The Soviet Union that claimed an epic, crushing victory over Nazism and saved the entire world is gone. Besides, the events of that war have long become a distant memory, even for its participants. So why does Russia celebrate the 9th of May as the biggest holiday? Why does life almost come to a halt on June 22? And why does one feel a lump rise in their throat? They usually say that the war has left a deep imprint on every family's history. Behind these words, there are fates of millions of people, their sufferings and the pain of loss. Behind these words, there is also the pride, the truth and the memory.
Public discussions about possible outcomes of the Kosovo knot have become noticeably livelier recently. The United States and the EU are striving to make themselves an indispensable part of the settlement and are competing for the leading role in this process. In addition, as it happened before, they often disregard the opinions of other stakeholders, which fact calls into question the very possibility of finding a fair solution. Looking back into the recent past and analysing the regrettable consequences of external interference in the region’s affairs is something that must be done if we want to avoid making more mistakes. We also believe it is important to provide a general assessment of the current state of affairs and to outline our fundamental approaches to the Kosovo settlement.
Last week, Washington announced more unilateral sanctions. Unfortunately, this has already become common practice for the United States. These sanctions are directed at an unusual target - not one of the many countries that are out of US favour, but the International Criminal Court and its staff. This event was the subject of a joint briefing by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defence, the Attorney General and the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs.
Appeal by the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation to the parliaments of foreign States and the peoples of the world with regard to the 75th Anniversary of the Victory over Nazism
The rapid spread of the novel coronavirus changed life on the planet virtually overnight. It also became a crush test for international relations, both at the level of individual countries and multilateral associations. The obvious consequences include an economic recession, a crisis of global governance and the growth of protectionist and isolationist sentiments. The pandemic has seriously limited humanitarian, cultural and tourist exchanges, as well as people to people contacts. But this is only the tip of the iceberg.
We have held a CSTO Foreign Ministers Council meeting via videoconference.
Russia is chairing the CSTO this year. Considering the difficult situation caused by the coronavirus infection, we approached the preparations and holding of this meeting with certain precautions.
We have just completed the SCO Member States foreign ministers’ video conference where we discussed the general state of affairs in the region and the world and the SCO priority goals in connection with the spread and consequences of the novel coronavirus infection. We thanked our colleagues for supporting the Russian chairmanship’s proposal to hold this SCO foreign minister extraordinary meeting on this sensitive and important topic.
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