Russian Consulate in Cape Town

🎙 President of Russia Vladimir Putin met with journalists from BRICS countries ahead of the XVI BRICS Summit in Kazan(October 18, 2024) Read and watch in full Key talking points: • In the modern world, creating nuclear weapons is not a difficult task. I do not know whether current-day Ukraine is capable of doing this now though. It is not easy for Ukraine today, but generally there are no big difficulties in this regard, with everyone knowing how it is done. <...> I can say straight away: under no circumstances will Russia allow this to happen. • NATO is waging war against us with the hands of the Ukrainian soldiers, and Ukraine spares no lives for the interests of third countries, but Ukraine on its own does not use high-tech weapons: NATO does that. • What sets BRICS apart from many other international organisations/fora? #BRICS was never meant to be created to oppose anyone. It is a group of countries that work together, guided by shared values, a common vision for development, and, most importantly, by the consideration of each other’s interests. • In certain sectors, humanity’s existence is impossible without the BRICS countries, particularly in food and energy markets and so on. • Russian-Chinese cooperation on the global stage is undoubtedly one of the key pillars of strategic stability worldwide. • We do not interfere in [bilateral relations of other countries]. If there are any issues arising and if there is something that depends on us, we are ready to offer our services in resolving these issues, if they arise and if the participants in the corresponding process are interested in any involvement from our side. • The United States should not have destroyed the [Middle East] Quartet. it worked, it was easier to agree on all positions. But the US monopolised the work, took all the responsibility and eventually failed. • The main method to resolve the Palestinian issue is to create a full-fledged Palestinian state. • 95% of Russia’s foreign trade with its partners is being done in national currencies. The United States did it themselves. • The International Criminal Court has no universal power. This is an international organisation whose jurisdiction Russia does not recognise, like many other countries.

📞 On October 17, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had a telephone conversation with South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola. The sides discussed the development of bilateral relations and preparations for the first ministerial conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum in Sochi on November 9-10, and the BRICS Summit in Kazan on October 22-24. #RussiaSouthAfrica#BRICS2024

🎙 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's interview to the newspaper "Arguments and Facts" (October 21, 2024) Key Points: #BRICS • BRICS epitomises the shifts that have long been underway in the global economy. New centres of economic growth are emerging, and alongside them comes financial influence, which in turn brings political influence. • BRICS is a consortium where no single nation leads or is led, devoid of the bureaucratic machinery akin to that observed in Brussels, where EU officials impose decisions that contravene the will and interests of several member states, failing to align with the aspirations of voters across many countries. • BRICS does not stand in opposition to any entity, nor does it orchestrate operations or initiate projects. BRICS is committed to enhancing the combined potential of its nations and devising collaborative strategies for harnessing these potentials for mutual benefit. • What makes BRICS and other World Majority or Global East associations that do not include Western countries stand out, is that they are not created for the purpose of struggling or fighting with anyone. They are established to collectively benefit from their competitive advantages such as geographical location, shared history, cultural and humanitarian proximity <...>. #USA • The US is unwilling to relinquish the reins of power that they have held since World War II through the Bretton Woods institutions and through the role assigned to the US dollar in the international monetary system, even after free exchange of US dollars for gold had been cancelled. • The key goal of the US ruling class is to make sure no one can undermine their dominance. This goal is illusory. The historical process is objectively heading in a different direction, and this has to be reckoned with. • We are ready to interact with any administration voted in by the American people, but only if such a dialogue is mutually respectful, and both parties listen and hear what the other party has to say. #Ukraine • On multiple occasions, European leaders from Brussels have repeatedly made it clear that they must support Ukraine for as long as it takes, because Ukraine is fighting for the European values. • It turns out that European leaders are still willing to uphold Nazi values, which is why denazification is not just a motto, but an objective of utmost importance. #UN • The United Nations is not a valiant knight expected to “charge in and extinguish the fire” upon witnessing injustice. The UN is an assembly of its member states, each with established rules, including the Security Council's veto rights. The United States has effectively exercised this right five times over the past year, blocking a resolution proposed by several countries, including Russia, demanding an immediate ceasefire. <...> Presently, the United States is taking every measure to avoid antagonising Israel. • Nations such as India, Brazil, and African representatives should have long held permanent seats on the Security Council. This is essential to ensure representation of the World Majority. #Finland#Sweden#NATO • The zeal that the Finns and Swedes are showing in NATO, advocating for defeating Russia, is not only rooted in their historical instincts. They are also eager to show their Big Brothers in the North Atlantic Alliance that they have brought added value <...>. • I am confident that reasonable people in Europe, who have learned the lessons taught by history, see this too, including in Finland and Sweden. #Europe • To reiterate, the so-called right-wing conservatives are loyal to their countries and their people. We will engage with anyone who approaches us with a proposal to talk, to seek common ground, and to think about how we can jointly make the lives of our citizens better. #EurasianSecurity • We suggest discussing the Eurasian continent-wide security architecture, emphasising the fact that its doors will be open to everyone, including countries from the West of the Eurasian continent. Read in full(Telegraph)

#RussiaSouthAfrica#BRICS2024 🇷🇺🇿🇦 On October 17, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola spoke over the phone. The Sides discussed the development of bilateral relations and preparations for the first ministerial conference of the #RussiaAfrica Partnership Forum in Sochi on November 9-10, and the BRICS Summit in Kazan on October 22-24.

🇷🇺🤝🇿🇦 On October 18, Dr. Iqbal Surve, Chairman of Sekunjalo Investment Holdings, a diversified investment firm based in Cape Town, and the Chairman of Independent Media, one of South Africa's largest media companies, attended the Heads of Leading Media of BRICS Countries conference and participated in a special meeting with President Putin. #RussiaSouthAfrica#BRICS2024

#BRICS2024 🎙Remarks by President of Russia Vladimir Putin at the Plenary Session of the BRICS Business Forum(October 18, 2024) 💬 I am sincerely delighted to welcome everyone to the BRICS Business Forum. I would like to note the wide representation of participants in this hall. We have leading business representatives from every country in the BRICS group. Your companies have been successfully cooperating for a long time, implementing impressive joint projects across a variety of domains: industry and energy, transport and infrastructure, agriculture and the digital economy. I would like to note, in particular, that this Forum is attended by business leaders from countries that became full participants on January 1, 2024. These are our colleagues and friends from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates. 👉 I would like to emphasise that as the current chair of #BRICS, Russia strives to facilitate integration of new members into all cooperation mechanisms. We saw that representatives from the new BRICS countries were warmly received in the Business Council, and they, too, became actively involved in its work. The theme of Russia’s BRICS Chairmanship in 2024 is Strengthening Multilateralism for Just Global Development and Security. A meaningful action plan is being implemented to advance the partners on three major tracks: • politics and security, • economy and finance, • cultural and humanitarian ties. To date, the progress on the plan exceeds 80%. ℹ️ Over 200 events, meetings, conferences, and industry gatherings have been held, as well as most of the expert and ministerial meetings. However, the BRICS Summit, which will open next week in the Russian city of Kazan, will be the central event. It is symbolic that the leaders’ meeting in Kazan is preceded by this Business Forum, which underscores the importance of close economic partnership between our countries, promoting trade and investment, and deepening cooperation. The BRICS partners’ joint efforts aimed at accelerating socioeconomic growth and ensuring sustainable development bring concrete, tangible results and in fact, contribute to improving the well-being and quality of life of our countries’ citizens. <...> ☝️ Among the BRICS leaders' top priorities is to promote business activity. <...> By helping and supporting each other, we will fulfil the main goal of ensuring positive progress, security and ultimately the well-being of the citizens of our nations. ❗️ BRICS is not oriented against anyone. It is aimed only at one common goal — sustainable development and prosperity of our countries and peoples. 📸© RIAN, TASS

🔴#LIVE: President of Russia Vladimir Putin gives interview to BRICS media ahead of the 2024 BRICS Summit in Kazan 🔴X (ex-Twitter) 🔴Ruptly 🔴Kremlin. News

#BRICS2024 Early next week, starting October 22 and through 24th, 2024, Russia's Kazan will host one of the largest international events of the year — the XVI BRICS Summit. Its theme —Strengthening multilateralism for equitable global development and security. 👉Read more about the upcoming Summit, the agenda of the Heads of State and events with the participation of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The Heads of State will have a busy agenda. They will discuss global and regional issues and the results of their countries' strategic partnerships in the political, economic, cultural and humanitarian fields. They will also review the results of their security interaction, including the work of their High Representatives and relevant agencies in this field. They will focus on reforming the international financial system and enhancing the role of the BRICS countries, as well as promoting interbank cooperation and mutual settlements in national currencies. Another important item on the agenda will be the creation of a new category of BRICS partner countries. The main results of the Summit will be set out in the final declaration, including the consolidated approach of the member states to current international and regional issues and the further development of BRICS. (from the briefing of the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova, October 16, 2024). Preparations for the Summit are underway with Kazan being decorated in BRICS livery and colours. Russia's Presidency logo is also displayed near the city's main landmarks. 📸 The official photo bankof the XVI BRICS Summit has been launched.The Event's Photo Host is RIA Novosti news agency. © Maxim Bogodvid

#AntiFakeOfTheDay 📰Regarding a yet another misleading publication in The Times The consistent development of equitable mutually beneficial cooperation within the #BRICS framework has evidently provoked a degree of unconcealed irritation within the British establishment <...>. BRICS is increasingly becoming a target of deliberate attacks and systematic attempts to undermine its credibility by the neoliberal regimes and its crony media outlets. The British media has always acted as an instigator, deliberately distorting the very essence and principles of the association in an attempt to portray BRICS as an antagonist and a collective adversary of the West. 👎 A quintessential example of such alarmist propaganda is Roger Boyes' article in The Times, titled Expanding BRICS Alliance Should Worry NATO. Mr Boyes crafts a narrative from an alternate (un)reality, in which BRICS is purported to resemble a military alliance positioned against NATO. A crash course for the clueless "diplomatic editors"👇 The genuine goals and interests of the association starkly contrast with the fantasies presented in this publication, which has, in recent years, devolved into a run-of-the-mill tabloid. • BRICS has NEVER been, nor does it intend to become, a military alliance. BRICS is not an international organisation or an integration structure, but rather an interstate association of equal participants. It is a multidimensional strategic partnership founded on three key pillars: politics and security, economy and finance, and cultural and social ties. • Relations among BRICS partners are grounded in equality and mutual respect, the principles of openness, pragmatism, solidarity, and, crucially, a lack of bias against any party. • One of the principal objectives of BRICS is to establish a fair and multilateral global economic system. 🤦‍♂️ It is utterly absurd to even entertain the notion of equating BRICS with the aggressive military alliance of NATO. ❗️For decades, NATO's history has been marred by bloody invasions and the destabilisation of security across various regions worldwide. What NATO is: ❌ destruction, suffering, and misery for millions, ❌ suppressing national identities, ❌ relentless expanding of military infrastructure, ❌ imposing neoliberal dictatorship for the benefit of a single nation, ❌ decrepit relic of the Cold War, having long since lost its original purpose. What BRICS is: ✅ creation, ✅ development assistance, ✅ collaborative enrichment of civilisations, ✅ respecting the interests of all nations to establish a truly just world order. The yet another low-quality hit-piece published by another Western newspaper employs own neo-colonial ideas about international relations with the clear aim to incite unfounded fears. By producing a biased article intended to tarnish BRICS, the author, who claims to be a diplomatic editor, merely projects his own flawed, aggressive worldview and embodies the classic British colonial mindset. Such writing is not only tedious but also reveals the profound despair of the"not-so-flourishing Western garden," which is rapidly losing its relevance. Read in full

#RussiaHelps Russia sent over 30 tons of humanitarian aid for Gaza ✈️ The special flight of the Russian Ministry of the Emergency Situations delivered 30 tones of humanitarian aid for Gaza to Egyptian Red Crescent representatives in El-Arish city. The humanitarian aid consists of long-term storage products, tents and sleeping bags. 📌 In total, since the beginning of the humanitarian mission, about 800 tons of cargo have been delivered by flights of the Ministry. 🇷🇺🤝🇵🇸#RussiaPalestine

🎙Statement by Vladimir Ermakov, Head of the Delegation of the Russian Federation, Director of the Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, at the General Debate in the First Committee of the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly 📍New York, 15 October 2024 Key talking points • The situation with international security and strategic stability, far from stabilizing, has continued to deteriorate. <...> • There seems to be hardly any mutual willingness to engage in political and diplomatic work towards de-escalation and settlement of interstate dispute based on equality, mutual respect for the core interests of the parties and the principle of indivisible security. • There is no political will to jointly address the root causes of fundamental contradictions, which is essential for a reliable and long-term decrease in conflict potential. • The situation is deteriorating on a global scale. And the underlying reason is the struggle over a future model of the world order, which has dramatically intensified. The objectively imminent transition to multipolarity is being fiercely hampered by the US-led West unwilling to give up its hegemonic ambitions. <...> • This is most evident in the extremely dangerous course taken by the US and its accomplices, which is to further escalate the Ukraine crisis with a view to inflict a "strategic defeat" on Russia and suppress its input into establishing a just world order. ❗️ The West is blatantly and cynically blocking any prospects for a comprehensive and lasting settlement of the conflict around Ukraine. • The West aims to ensure an uncontested military superiority that would underpin the diktat of force. • The disruption of the existing arms control and nuclear non-proliferation system affects the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). • NPT's key problem is that for a long time, Western countries have used it to achieve their political goals which have nothing to do with nuclear non-proliferation, i.e.: exerting political pressure or justifying for direct military interventions against "out-of-favour" countries and the overall tightening of the control over the nuclear programmes of the states that are not part of the Western bloc. • Crises in international affairs, exacerbated by negative trends in international security, directly affect the functioning of international institutions in the field of arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation. Read in full

Russian MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova: The establishment of the BRICS+ Information and Cultural Media Centre marks step forward in developing BRICS+ humanitarian cooperation 🤝The BRICS+ Information and Cultural Media Centre was opened in Moscow on October 15, organised by the All-Russian State Library for Foreign Literature named after M. I. Rudomino and the TV BRICS International Media Network. 📚 The project aims to foster and strengthen humanitarian cooperation among BRICS+ countries and promote culture, science and education. The opening was accompanied by the plenary session titled "Humanitarian Foundations of the BRICS+ Dialogue: The Role of Media in Strengthening Cooperation in the Fields of Culture, Science, and Education." During the event Maria Zakharova emphasised that the creation of the Centre represents a significant step forward in developing humanitarian cooperation between BRICS+ countries: “This platform will become a vibrant hub for disseminating information” #BRICS#RussianMFA