Comment by the Information and Press Department on the developments around Alexey Navalny
We noted the fairly predictable and prompt response with which German officials agreed to the publication of a report on the results of a study on Alexey Navalny’s bio materials on the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) website. These results were received shortly before, probably, timed to the beginning of the OPCW Executive Council session.
Thus, this essentially fantastic story, initiated at Berlin’s prompting by its Euro-Atlantic allies in cooperation with the heads of the OPCW Technical Secretariat, received a continuation under the pre-planned conspiracy scenario.
Following the military laboratories of Germany, France and Sweden, now another two laboratories appointed by the OPCW Technical Secretariat, which are, judging by everything, also linked to the military-political structures of the Euro-Atlantic community, have confirmed the presence of certain cholinesterase inhibitors in Navalny’s bio materials. It is stated that these inhibitors are similar in their structural characteristics to two chemicals controlled by the Chemical Weapons Convention but as distinct from them, are not included on its lists.
The Russian Federation intends to distribute its vision of the situation on Germany’s cooperation with the OPCW Technical Secretariat, at the current session of the Executive Council. It will present the chronology of backstage manipulations by the main actors in this play to the participants of the Chemical Weapons Convention. We would also like to remind you that the inquiries sent by the Prosecutor-General’s Office of the Russian Federation to the German authorities in accordance with the 1959 European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters remain unanswered and are supposedly still under review.
We hope the upcoming efforts of the Russian specialists and their OPCW colleagues will make it possible to develop calm, depoliticised cooperation and avoid further escalation of tension around this issue.
The US administration has once again made news with another anti-Russia attack, accusing our government agencies of malicious activities in the field of information and communications technology.
We have received no official response from the United States to our Note dated October 16 which contains the proposal put forward by President Vladimir Putin to extend the New START Treaty for one year. We have noticed only some comments made by U.S. officials on social media platforms. Given contradictory reactions to the actual situation, we want to clarify.
Accusations of numerous cyber attacks (conducted without any meaningful purpose or result) that British authorities mount against Russia on a nearly daily basis form another cycle of their unprovoked malicious campaign.
Ladies and gentlemen,
This visit by Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejčinović Burić, draws a symbolic line under the system-wide crisis affecting the Council of Europe in 2014-2019 due to the illegal actions of a number of its Parliamentary Assembly members that run contrary to the organisation’s charter.
The Co-Chairs note with alarm the continuing violence in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The Co-Chairs call on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to take immediate steps to execute in full the obligations of the sides according to the October 10 Moscow statement, in order to prevent catastrophic consequences for the region.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We have held talks with Foreign Minister of Denmark Jeppe Kofod. We have many urgent issues on our bilateral agenda, including some that have piled up since our last meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September 2019.
The statement by the two ministers, which is unacceptable both in content and tone, points to the outright reluctance of Paris and Berlin to consider the facts that were set forth by Russian representatives more than once. Instead of properly cooperating with the Russian Federation with a view to clearing up the circumstances of the incident with the blogger, the German and French governments have now turned to threats and blackmail against us.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France Jean-Yves Le Drian, and Secretary of State of the United States of America Michael R. Pompeo, representing the Co-Chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group, condemn in the strongest terms the unprecedented and dangerous escalation of violence in and outside of the Nagorno-Karabakh zone.
The coronavirus pandemic, which has changed the lives of billions of people within a matter of several weeks, has become a real test for humankind. It is impossible to say with any degree of certainty when the pandemic will end. It would be logical in this situation to digitalise many aspects of everyday life, including state governance, business activities and education. The sphere of international ties has responded to this trend as well. It therefore makes perfect sense that ensuring reliable international information security (IIS) has moved to the top of the global agenda.
The coronavirus pandemic has been a catalyst for transforming international relations. Not only is the strength of states and integration associations being tested, but global governance mechanisms, primarily the UN, are being tested as well. It is important to learn the lesson of current developments in a timely fashion and draw the proper conclusions in order to ensure a peaceful, secure and stable future for humankind.
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