Russian Consulate in Cape Town

#PhotoOfTheDay Russian delegation takes part in the Russian-Ukrainian talks, convened on the initiative of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, with the participation of the Turkish Side (at the initial stage) 📍Istanbul, May 16 📸© Ramil Sitdikov / RIA Novosti

🔴#LIVE: Direct Russia-Ukraine talks under the initiative of President of the Russian Federation are underway with the participation of the Turkish Side at their initial stage 📍Istanbul, May 16 🔴Ruptly

⚡️Head of the Russian Delegation for the talks with Ukraine Vladimir Medinsky: 💬 Tomorrow, starting 10 a.m., we will be waiting for the Ukrainian side, that should arrive for the meeting, to begin the talks. 📍 Istanbul, Türkiye. May 15, 2025

🎙Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s address to participants of a grand ceremony for opening the 2nd BRICS Women’s Entrepreneurship Forum(May 15, 2025) 💬 Ladies and gentlemen, Colleagues, Friends, Welcome to the grand opening ceremony marking the beginning of the 2nd BRICS Women’s Entrepreneurship Forum. Without a doubt, today’s event represents a milestone for the BRICS countries’ business communities and our entire association, which increasingly plays a big part in global affairs. We view BRICS as a focal point for coordinating interests of the World Majority’s leading countries, a key pillar of a multipolar world, and an important mechanism for advancing genuinely multilateral cooperation. I would like to emphasise that our joint work within the association is based on the principles of equality, mutual respect, and balance of interests of all participants. The potential of BRICS has benefitted greatly from expansion. The BRICS countries represent nearly half of the world’s population, and their aggregate GDP makes up about 40 percent of global GDP in terms of purchasing power parity, more than that of the G7. Considering this, it stands to reason that BRICS continues to attract the Global South and Global East countries that seek mutually beneficial partnerships and joint development. Expanding comprehensive cooperation within the BRICS format is among our unconditional foreign policy priorities. We place special emphasis on supporting new ideas and pro-active approaches in the economy, ensuring financial stability, advancing digitalisation, and enhancing transport connectivity. Women’s entrepreneurship is a key factor in achieving progress in these and other areas. Your determination, innovation-based approaches, and leadership create new prospects and open new horizons for expanding our respective economies and social spheres. Today’s forum provides an excellent opportunity to exchange best practices, to establish and strengthen business contacts, and to coordinate specific practical cooperation projects. The initiatives to be developed during the forum will be taken into account in preparations for the 17th BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro on July 6-7 and contribute to the collective efforts of our association. I wish you engaging interactions, substantive discussions, and all the best. I am confident that, acting together, we can make our BRICS partnership even more effective.

🔴#LIVE: Briefing by Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on topical foreign policy issues 🔴X (ex-Twitter) 🔴Russia’s MFA website 🔴Ruptly

🔴#LIVE: Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov remarks at the Diplomatic Club session 🔴X (ex-Twitter) 🔴Russia’s MFA website 🔴Ruptly

🎙Briefing by Russia's Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova(Moscow, May 6, 2025) 🔹 The decisive role of the Soviet Union and the Red Army in defeating Nazi Germany and lessons drawn from history 🔹 Celebrating the 80th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War in Russia and around the world 🔹 Ukraine crisis 🔹 Kiev regime crimes 🔹 On Stephane Dujarric’s comments 🔹 On Argentina’s authorities declassification of documents regarding Nazi presence in the country 🔹 NATO-Georgia command and staff exercise 🔹 Russia's EMERCOM assistance to friendly Iran in fighting the Shahid Rajaee Port fire 📰Read 📺Watch *** #Victory80 We will foreverremember the price we paid for Victory in the Great Patriotic War. Unlike countries of the Western Europe overpowered by Nazis, the Soviet Union did not succumb to Nazis who planned to exterminate us all. We faced a war of annihilation. For decades after Nuremberg, this was never questioned. Now, we are forced to prove that it was genocide. The peoples of the Soviet Union not only defeated the Wehrmacht, but also brought life, liberation and salvation to the peoples of Eastern and Central Europe. The Red Army, the Soviet soldiers halted the Nazi extermination machine in its tracks and extinguished the Holocaust crematoria. Those who deny this are clearly supporting the resurgence of Nazism and the rise of neo-Nazism. In a futile attempt, the embassies of the Kiev regime and its Western patrons are trying to propagate deep-rooted falsehoods that defy history. In their hatred, Ukrainian diplomats go so far as to equate the Soviet Union (homeland of their forefathers) with the Third Reich. <...>What they are doing causes nothing but indignation and disgust. Fathers and grandfathers of many of them, including the ringleader of the Kiev junta Zelensky, were front-line soldiers who fought for the common Soviet Motherland against Nazi invaders and criminals. What would their ancestors say, looking them in the eye, seeing their descendants who, for the sake of personal gain or a pat on the shoulder from their Western master, smear their own past and betray their own history? #KievRegimeCrimes The Kiev regime has really pushed the limits in its so-called de-communisation policy. It now advises Great Patriotic War veterans living in Ukraine – as unbelievable as this may sound – to conceal the war-time decorations they earned for winning the war, for the battles they fought and the feats they accomplished during the Great Patriotic War. They are being told to wear their decorations on the inside of their jackets so that they do not cause any misgivings to those around them who might somehow be disturbed. They referred to them as "sensitive people" without going as far as calling them Russia-haters, but there is no doubt that this is what they had in mind. How can this be? And how do we frame this posture? This is a deliberate effort to sneer at these people, mock and disparage them. The Kiev regime now wants the real heroes not only to stay in the shadows, but to stage their self-annihilation of sorts so that they keep their heads underwater without even daring to show their decorations and medals. It is quite obvious that the Kiev regime views those who saved the world from Nazism with fear, hatred and resentfulness. #UN#DoubleStandards During his regular media briefing, Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric made yet another outrageous comment regarding the situation in Ukraine. The UN Secretary-General, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and some other UN agencies are not averse to seizing on even the most absurd accusations against our country. #Georgia#NATO The Alliance is continuing with its policy of drawing South Caucasus republics into its orbit. It should be clear to everyone that NATO’s actions in the South Caucasus are not aimed at enhancing security but at creating a zone of instability and military-political tension in the region.

#Победа80 🏅80-летие Победы в Великой Отечественной войне — событие поистине планетарного масштаба. Задолго до 9 мая, накануне праздника и, собственно, в#ДеньПобедыпамятные и праздничные мероприятия с участием российских дипломатов прошли в более чем 120 странах мира. 🕯 Как никогда широкий размах приобрела всемирная акцияБессмертный полк — шествия были организованы более чем в 90 странах мира. Почтить память героев Великой Отечественной войны за рубежом вышли десятки тысяч соотечественников, которые помнят и ценят подвиг поколения победителей, а также наши дипломаты. По всему миру — более чем в 80 странах — проводились акции, посвящённые памяти советских воинов и подвигу героев Великой Отечественной войны. Среди наиболее заметных: #СадПамяти, #ОкнаПобеды, #ГеоргиевскаяЛенточка, #ОгоньПамяти, #СвечаПамяти и другие. Российские дипломаты и соотечественники уделяли особое внимание военно-мемориальной работе, особенно в условиях не прекращающихся «войны с памятниками и захоронениями красноармейцев в Европе». Наши коллеги провели торжественные церемонии возложения цветов и венков к мемориалам более чем в 70 странах, ухаживали и приводили в порядок могилы погибших советских воинов и военнопленных. Только лишь одно Генконсульство России в Бонне приняло участие в 130 памятных акциях. Кроме того, в ряде стран были открыты новые мемориальные таблички, посвящённые Победе советского народа в Великой Отечественной войне, а также прошли панихиды по павшим солдатам и офицерам Красной армии. Посольства, постпредства и генконсульства по всему проводили торжественные приёмыи другие праздничные мероприятия, включая концерты, выставки, кинопоказы, литературные вечера. Дипломаты также посещали ветеранов, проживающих за рубежом, вручали им медали и письма от Президента России В.В.Путина, дарили подарки и выражали самую искреннюю благодарность. 👉Собрали для вас информацию обо всех приуроченных к 80-летию Победымероприятиях российских загранучреждений, либо с участием российских дипломатов. • Бессмертный полк • Памятные акции • Мемориальные мероприятия • Приёмы, концерты, выставки, тематические вечера О вручении в торжественной обстановке ветеранам, труженикам тыла, блокадникам и узникам концлагерей, живущим за рубежом, медалей «80 лет Победы в Великой Отечественной войне 1941–1945 годов». #ДеньПобеды2025

✍🏻For the first time in 80 years, nuclear war is a real possibility Article by Dr. Iqbal Survé, Chairman of Sekunjalo Group Cape Town, 11 May 2025 💭Today, we face a chilling reality: for the first time since those horrific events, the threat of nuclear war is no longer theoretical. It is real, it is present, and it is dangerously close. War, I believe, has no victors. Only victims. Today’s nuclear arsenal makes Hiroshima look primitive. Modern warheads have unprecedented destructive power and delivery speed. A single strike can obliterate millions. Even more concerning is the advent of ‘tactical’ nuclear weapons — smaller bombs with concentrated impact, falsely marketed as controlled warfare. From the Kashmir border to the Gaza Strip, from the Taiwan Strait to the South China Sea, we are sitting atop pressure points that could ignite instantaneously. The greatest danger is not weaponry. It is dehumanisation. As someone who has had the privilege of engaging with global leaders, including recently with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, I know that diplomacy, when rooted in honesty and humility, can defuse even the most dangerous situations. We must make room for such diplomacy again. Thankfully, under Nelson Mandela’s leadership, South Africa became the first country to dismantle its nuclear arsenal voluntarily. It was a choice for peace, a stand for humanity. Let us not sleepwalk into catastrophe. Let us instead awaken to the truth: that peace, not war, is the only legacy worth leaving behind. 🔗 Read in full: https://iol.co.za/news/opinion/2025-05-11-for-the-first-time-in-80-years-nuclear-war-is-a-real-possibility/

🇷🇺🇹🇷Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with President of the Republic of Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan 🔹The leaders had a thorough discussion of the President of Russia's initiative on resuming direct talks between Russia and Ukraine, which were proposed to be held in Istanbul starting on May 15. 🔹Recep Tayyip Erdogan has expressed his full support for Russia's proposal and emphasised his willingness to provide a venue for the talks in Istanbul. The Turkish side will offer all possible assistance in organising and holding talks aimed at achieving sustainable peace. 🔹The President of Russia conveyed his impressions of the events held in Moscow to mark the 80th anniversary of Great Victory, as well as the international engagements that took place over these few days. 🔹The leaders have also expressed mutual interest in further expanding the bilateral ties in trade and investment and, in particular, implementing joint strategic projects in energy.

Vladimir Putin's statement to the media: see it in full

"We propose resuming the talks" The President of Russia made an offer to the Kiev authorities, proposing resuming their talks. "Those who are peace seekers cannot but support that", he emphasised. Against all odds we offer the Kiev authorities to resume the talks they terminated in late 2022, resuming the direct talks. And I would like to stress that I'm referring to talks without any preconditions. We propose starting immediately, next Thursday, May 15, in Istanbul, the venue that held them before, where they were terminated. We are committed to holding serious talks with Ukraine in order to eliminate the root causes of the conflict, to arrive at an enduring, long-lasting peace in the long, historical run. <...> Our proposal is on the table. Now it's up to the Ukrainian authorities and their mentors.