Russian Embassy in Asmara

✍️ Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s greetings to the organisers of and participants in a commemorative meeting on the 79th anniversary of Victory over militarist Japan and the end of the World War II 💬 It is a great honour and privilege for me to send my greetings to the participants in the commemorative meeting organised by the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation to mark the 79th anniversary of Victory over militarist Japan and the end of World War II. Today, we remember the feat accomplished by the Soviet soldiers. They formed a single front with the people of China and Mongolia and had to bear the brunt of the aggressive push by the Japanese militarist regime, including in the heat of the battles of Lake Khasan and Khalkhin Gol River, and all this happened before Hitler staged his treacherous invasion of the Soviet Union. The fact that we emerged victorious from these battles was instrumental in terms of military and foreign policy affairs for securing our far eastern borders. In 1945, our country made a decisive contribution to delivering a final blow to the Japanese militarist regime. Unfortunately, the collective West has been stepping up its efforts and multiplying attempts to rewrite history by whitewashing those who stained their names forever by perpetrating war crimes and crimes against humanity. Tokyo’s official position consists of refusing to repent the aggression against several countries, including the USSR. Moreover, it persists with its absurd accusations alleging that it was our country that unleashed World War II. We can see that they have been consistently seeking to falsify facts dealing with the creation of the Tripartite Pact by militarist Japan, Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, as well as the fact that Tokyo offered military, technical and logistics support to the Third Reich during its invasion of the Soviet Union. At the same time, the Japanese authorities have been intentionally silencing the fact that it was the United States which bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Instead, the annual commemorations in these cities offer a stage for making sacrilegious statements alleging that the threat of using nuclear weapons comes from Russia. ☝️ Against this backdrop, we believe that it is high time that we highlight the courage and valour demonstrated by the Red Army soldiers and officers who defeated the Kwantung Army. Together with its friends in China and Mongolia, the Foreign Ministry has been acting on multiple fronts in its awareness, outreach and educational efforts, as well as commemorative and memorial work to expose more crimes perpetrated by Japan during World War II. We believe that Tokyo’s compliance with the peace-related provisions of its own constitution would strengthen regional and global security. In conclusion, I would like to thank the senior officials from the Russian Defence Ministry for their initiative to convene this gathering and for making all these effective arrangements. I wish you fruitful work and all the best.

❕BRICS member states will consider Turkey's bid for full membership in the association, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov told reporters.

📸Commemorative events dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Beslan school siege On September 1-3, 2004, more than 1,200 people were taken hostage by terrorists after they seized a school in the city of Beslan in Russia's Republic of North Ossetia–Alania. As many as 335 people were killed, including 186 children. Photos: Ilya Lazarev/Sergey Karpukhin/TASS

🗓 September 3 marks the Day of Military Glory in Russia — the day of victory over militarist Japan and the end of World War II. On September 2, the representative of the USSR General Kuzma Derevyanko and the allies of the Soviet Union during WWII signed the Instrument of Surrender of militarist Japan. At the Tehran (1943) and Yalta (1945) conferences of the heads of the Big Three Joseph Stalin agreed to help the United States and Britain in the war against Japan, which at that time the USSR had a pact of neutrality with. It was agreed in Tehran that the USSR would enter the war two or three months after the surrender of Germany. The redeployment of Soviet soldiers to the Far East began even before Berlin was captured. According to the plan the Soviet forces were to encircle and defeat the enemy in the Far East within two months but victory was achieved much faster — merely 11 days later. ☝️ The Red Army dealt a crushing blow to the Kwantung Army, which became one of the determining factors of the defeat of militarist Japan. Southern part of Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, Manchuria and part of Korea were liberated from Japanese occupation. 📹The Russian Military Historical Society #Victory79#WeWereAllies

🎖 President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, has signed a Decree on the commemorative medal ‘80 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945’. The medal will be awarded to veterans of the Great Patriotic War and other persons in accordance with the Regulation. On the obverse is a composition depicting a victorious soldier in a field uniform of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, hoisting the Victory Banner over the Reichstag. On the reverse is the inscription ‘80 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945’, enclosed in a laurel wreath, at the base of which is an image of the Order of the Patriotic War of the First Degree.

🎙Interview with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for 'Bridges to the East' documentary (Moscow, August 31, 2024) Key talking points #Syria • In 2011, the United States decided to send the Syrian people along the same path as Iraq and Libya which countries they had devastated by their aggressive policies. We were strongly against seeing this scenario replay. In 2015, by President Putin’s decision, we sent a contingent of our armed forces to defend the Syrian Arab Republic against direct aggression. ❗️ The US invasion of Iraq and the toppling of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein gave rise to ISIS, which posed a real threat to Syria’s existence. • When the Russian armed forces moved into Syria, ISIS was on the outskirts of Damascus, and Western countries, led by the United States, were attempting to assert their dominance in eastern Syria. We stabilised the situation and since then most of Syria’s territory has been controlled by the legitimate government. #Iraq • In 2003, led by the United States, NATO invaded Iraq under a false pretext, a false flag. Later, the Westerners admitted there was no reason for an invasion. No need to eliminate weapons of mass destruction whatsoever. They broadcasted to the whole world the hanging of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, allegedly for possessing weapons of mass destruction. This is a disgusting turn of events. #MiddleEast#Libya • Western Jerusalem is ramping up military actions against the entities that they believe support the Palestinians and do so with an extremist slant, namely, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine. Israel wants to destroy the latter which is an exercise in futility. The sides must come to terms instead. Hamas is part of the Palestinian people, just as Hezbollah is part of the Lebanese people. • Lebanon remains in a situation where it is facing new challenges largely due to the crisis in the Gaza Strip and, more broadly, the Palestinian territories. • We remain in contact with our Israeli colleagues through the Foreign Ministry, the Defence Ministry, and the respective security councils from both countries. We are trying to drive home the futility of the attempts to address issues by force without considering alternative paths. • Washington stands behind every decision made by Israel. The US blocks all agreements at the UN Security Council that would lead to a full and permanent ceasefire. The Americans continue to supply weapons to Western Jerusalem, which are then used to commit even more violence against the Palestinian people. Over 40,000 civilians (!) have died in the ten months of hostilities since October 7, 2023 which is a horrifying number. #Iran • Iran is outright unwilling to fall for a provocation or to get embroiled into any kind of large-scale hostilities. Iran is facing provocations. The assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran during the inauguration ceremony of the new president is, without a doubt, a provocation. Read in full

🏒#OTD In 1972, Montreal hosted the 1st USSR-Canada #SummitSeries hockey game - a milestone in the world sport history, uniting fans across the globe with shared passion. 🇨🇦 It's a shame that Trudeau’s cabinet neglects hockey diplomacy legacy nowadays (as well as other achievements of once successful Canadian diplomacy).

🗓 79 years ago, on September 2, 1945, the Instrument of Surrender of militarist Japan was signed, bringing #WWII to the end. ❗️After the defeat of Germany in Europe, the last stronghold of the "Axis" powers remained in the Asia-Pacific region. The Korean Peninsula, Indochina, Indonesia, Malay Peninsula, part of China, Burma and the Philippines were under Japanese occupation. In order to neutralize the Japanese threat in the Far East and to fulfill the agreements reached with the allies of the anti-Hitler coalition – the USA and UK – the Soviet Union launched an offensive against militarist Japan. On August 9, the Manchurian strategic offensive operation of the Soviet forces commenced. 🌟 As a result of a rapid advancement and coordinated teamwork of the army, aviation and navy, Soviet forces defeated the Kwantung army. During the operation, the territories of China and North Korea were liberated from Japanese occupation. For only just 23 days of combat, the Red Army crushed the Japanese militaristic machine and eliminated the foothold of the enemy's military and economic base in Asia. 📑 The official ceremony of signing the Instrument of Surrender of Japan took place on September 2, 1945, on board the USS "Missouri" in Tokyo Bay. According to this document, "the unconditional surrender to the Allied Powers of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, all Japanese armed forces, and all armed forces under Japanese control, regardless of where they are" was declared. On behalf of the Soviet Union, the Instrument was signed by Lieutenant General Kuzma Derevyanko. Japan fully accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration of 1945. According to the Instrument, military actions on Japan's part ceased immediately, all Japanese and Japanese-controlled armed forces surrendered unconditionally. 🎖 The USSR Supreme Soviet Presidium issued an executive order "On Declaring September 3, 1945 the Day of Victory over Japan". Today the date September 3rd in our country is marked as the Day of Military Glory (Victory Day over militaristic Japan and the end of World War II). #Victory79

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's remarks at the “For the Freedom of Nations” Forum of Supporters of the Struggle Against Modern Practices of Neocolonialism, Moscow, February 16, 2024 Over the last three decades there has been a model of globalisation "engineered" by the United States and its closest allies, which has proved to be untenable. Western countries have led humanity not to prosperity, but to one of the most acute international crises since the Second World War. The conflict space in the world is expanding, and a deep split between the West and the countries of the Global Majority is emerging. https://mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/news/1932745/?lang=en

The article of Mr. Dmitry Medvedev “The humanity should get rid of the colonial system heritage. Colonial powers’ time is up”. “Rossiyskaya gazeta” Dmitry Medvedev (Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russian Federation, Chairman of the United Russia Party) United Russia plans to hold several important international events in Vladivostok in mid-June. Some of these events are part of Russia’s BRICS chairmanship programme. All the events will continue the tradition of public and political cooperation, seeking to build a polycentric and just world order by pursuing genuine democratisation of global governance. https://mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/istoricheskie_materialy/1956884/?lang=en

🗓 September 1st marks 85 years ago since the start of World War II– the bloodiest conflict in the history of mankind. It claimed many dozens of millions of peoples' lives (by some estimates, 80+ mln perished), including over 27 million citizens of the Soviet Union. ▪️ 61 states, with over 80 percent of the world’s population, were drawn into the bloody ordeal unleashed by the Axis powers; hostilities spread to 40 countries. 📖Read our in-depth retrospective overview in full The background of the greatest tragedy of the 20th century still remains in the focus of historians’ attention. The entire range of contradictions that provoked the war stemmed from World War I and can be traced back to the Treaty of Versailles signed in 1919. 👉 It was the Versailles system of international relations, drafted by the UK and France, that made the basis for the rise of revanchist sentiments in Europe. The League of Nations, the organization established to settle international disputes within the legal framework, technically became a tool for the Western powers to achieve their political goals. Not surprising that in Europe, torn by contradictions, fascism rapidly gained popularity. Politicians and extreme right-wing ideologues who were convinced of the superiority of their nation and ethnicities came to power first in Italy (1922) and then in Germany (1933), humiliated by the Versailles Treaty. The political establishment of the Western countries preferred to remain unaware and close their eyes on the danger these new ideologies presented. Their cynical view considered that Nazi aggression could be, in a typical Anglo-Saxon style, redirected towards the east where the young Soviet state was rapidly developing. The infamous Munich Betrayal of 1938was the apotheosis of the self-serving “appeasement” policy that the Western countries had preferred to building a collective security system suggested by the Soviet Union. With the tacit consent by the UK and France, Hitler ruthlessly annexed the sovereign state of Czechoslovakia. It was only Moscow that was willing to provide military assistance to the Czechoslovakians, but was unable to do so due to Poland that was playing along with Hitler and taking advantage of Czechoslovakia’s annexation by occupying the Cieszyn region. 🔻 A year later, a similar drama played out in the Far East: the Anglo-Japanese treaty was signed in June 1939, untying Tokyo’s hands in China. The Soviet Union could have become the next victim of militarist Japan. According to recently declassified documents, the Japanese command had been planning a possible attack against the Soviet Union since 1938, with nearly a million-strong Kwantung Army troops deployed along the border and ready to invade of our country at any moment, with its soldiers and officers known to show no aversion to human experiments to develop biological weapons. The Soviet Union had to contain Japan’s potential invasion by keeping substantial forces on its eastern borders until the very end of the war. ❗️Hitler's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 was a direct consequence of the policy of intrigues and manuevers pursued by the West, which did not allow to create an anti-Hitler coalition to jointly resist the Third Reich. ❌ In this context, the assertions of an alleged ‘equivalence’ between Nazism and Communism are unacceptable and blasphemous, as are the attempts to place equal blame for the start of the war on Germany and the Soviet Union in order to downplay the decisive contribution of the Soviet Union on the battlefields of the Great Patriotic War, which crushed Hitler’s war machine, and to diminish the heroism of our soldiers-liberators. ☝️Defeating the most aggressive reactionary forces was the most important outcome of the Great Victory of May 9, 1945. Our country saved many peoples (considered by the Nazis and their cronies “non-Aryan”), that the Nazis planned to kill in concentration camps or to turn into slaves.

▪️ 20 years ago, on September 1, 2004, a group of terrorists seized School No. 1 in Beslan, Russia's North Ossetia, during a ceremony marking the start of the new school year. Children, parents and teachers were taken hostage. They were held without food and water for almost three days. That bloody terrorist attack claimed 334 lives, including 186 children. The Alfa and Vympel special-purpose units of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation launched a counter-terrorist operation and managed to save 811 lives. Ten Federal Security Service special operations soldiers and two EMERCOM officers were killed in the assault. 🕯 People in Russia and abroad are mourning the innocent victims of the terrorist attack today. It has become an unhealing wound for our entire nation which bleeds to this day. Encouraged by Western masterminds, the terrorists sought to destabilise Russian society and sow interethnic and inter-faith discord. Against all odds, our society stood firm and survived. The terrorists may have destroyed a school building, but it was substituted by two newly-built schools equipped up to the most modern standards. ⚠️ Today, Russia is once again facing a terrorist threat. The collective West is waging a hybrid war against our country, using, among other things, terrorist and extremist groups. Russia remains firmly committed to a principled fight against the threats of terrorism and calls on the international community to join forces in combating this scourge with the UN playing its central coordinating role. #Beslan20