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Putin in the Labyrinth: how Moscow can avoid losing in the Middle East - International Affairs ⚡#opinion https://en.interaffairs.ru/article/putin-in-the-labyrinth-how-moscow-can-avoid-losing-in-the-middle-east/

#Opinion by Ambassador Gennady Gatilov ▪️ It has been exactly 10 years since the terrible tragedy in Odessa, which is referred to as the "Odessa Khatyn". As in 1943, people, driven into the Trade Unions House by Ukrainian nationalists in the spirit of Hitler's punitive squads, perished in the flames of the burning building. Despite abundant documentary evidence from the scene, no one has faced punishment for the murder of 48 people. ▪️ Calls for a "thorough investigation of the incident" from Washington, the Council of Europe, the European Union and other patrons of the violent 2014 coup in Ukraine, were made just for show for obvious reasons. No one seriously expected the "masters" of the current Kiev regime to be genuinely interested in publicly punishing their subordinates. ▪️ Another issue is more puzzling. The response of the UN, including its human rights mechanisms, as well as other international organizations to the tragedy in Odessa was so casual and "inert" that it only exacerbated the situation. Such an "indulgence of violence" effectively gave Kiev a sense of impunity, which led to the beginning of full-scale military actions against its own citizens (at the time) in Donbass, resulting in thousands of civilian casualties. ▪️ This anniversary gives reason to once again reflect on the nature of the Kiev regime. The Odessa massacre clearly exposed the true face of the Ukrainian authorities and "opened the eyes" of many, above all - the residents of Donetsk and Lugansk, to the grim fate for defending their history, faith, culture and native language. ❗️ I strongly believe that justice will prevail, and the perpetrators will not escape the punishment they deserve. Just as justice caught up with Nazi war criminals, so too will it reach the Ukrainian Banderites committing crimes against humanity today.

#Opinion by Maria Zakharova 💬 Zelensky said that Kiev was hostage to the election process in the US. So... were there no elections in the United States before 2024? Or is that the absent Ukrainian presidential elections have been moved to the US? I get it. Zelensky wants to believe he’s one of a kind and everything revolves around him, but this is not the case. He is just a line in a long list of victims of US “elections,” or, to be precise, the American system. He is one of those who were 100 percent sure the United States was their ally. South Vietnamese got it back in the 1960s. There was a girl once upon a time, who was South Vietnam’s greatest beauty, Tran Le Xuan. She was popularly called Madame Nhu because she was married to Ngo Dinh Nhu, the younger brother and chief advisor of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem. Ngo Dinh Nhu and Ngo Dinh Diem, the two South Vietnamese leaders, were supported by the Americans. Even at the height of the Vietnam War, a bloody and ugly child of the French colonial system, Washington promised Ngo Dinh Nhu and Ngo Dinh Diem its full assistance. The Americans were working hard to ensure the tragic split into the South Vietnam and North Vietnam seeking to benefit from a war in the former French colonies. Can’t Zelensky see parallels? The US was so delicate with South Vietnamese leaders that US Vice President Lyndon Johnson visited Saigon in 1961. Later, he, then the US President, would send hundreds of thousands of Americans to die in Vietnam. During his visit, Johnson called Diem the “Churchill of Asia.” In much the same way, the US has promoted an ambitious drug addict crowning him “the leader of a Free Ukraine”. So, what happened to the Washington allies, Ngo Dinh Nhu and Ngo Dinh Diem? They were killed. General Duong Van Minh, considered one of the most loyal military commanders, led a coup on November 1, 1963 in which South Vietnam’s top brass were arrested and shot on the putschists’ orders. It was only by chance that Ngo Dinh Nhu’s wife, Tran Le Xuan, wasn’t killed, because she was abroad. It was then that Madame Nhu uttered the much-remembered phrase: "Those who have the United States as an ally need have no enemies". And that phrase turned out to be prophetic. In 1975, it turned out that the Americans knew of the impending coup. They could have warned their allies, saved the South Vietnamese president and his team, but just as the French did not prevent the genocide in Rwanda, the Americans "found it inexpedient" to stop the military putsch. Some sources claim that the degree of involvement of the Americans was even greater in that they inspired the coup and used the military to remove the president. But let’s return to the American elections. Here are just a few quotations from comments, statements and interviews by the Russian Foreign Ministry leadership on this subject. Sergey Lavrov: “This is not the first time that serious international issues that concern many members of the world community are being held hostage to US electoral cycles. However, this is a short-sighted approach.” (September 21, 2018) Sergey Lavrov: “It is sad when these endless election cycles are starting to make virtually everything else a hostage to the domestic US political struggle. Elections take place every two years, and it is necessary to do something during them, so that the enemy will feel defeated.” (December 22, 2019) Sergey Lavrov: “When the issue concerns a country that boasts the most powerful military and economy, and is the most influential country in the world, which holds political elections every two years, it very often occurs that the most important international issues become hostage to electoral motives of the existing US authorities, which want to ensure that their every move in the international arena scores big for their party candidates.” (December 30, 2015) We warned them. It’s just that Mr Nhu refused to realise this or was simply unable to. Reread the first sentence of the post: now it started dawning on him.

#Opinion “In earlier periods of diplomatic practice, conduct of this nature could easily have triggered recall or resignation. Ambassadors have historically been required to step down for statements far less provocative than publicly refusing condolences following the death of a head of state. Yet in the present case Dr Olexander Scherba appears able to operate with considerable freedom inside South Africa’s public sphere.” ✍️ Read the article by Gillian Schutte on IOL about the situation involving Ukrainian ambassador to South Africa A.Scherba, who used the moment to mock the deaths of hundreds of Iraniansfollowing the unprovoked aggression by the United States and Israel against Iran. 👉https://iol.co.za/news/opinion/2026-03-06-ukraines-diplomatic-impunity-in-pretoria/ Ukraine's Diplomatic Impunity in Pretoria

#Opinion 👉 From the article Russians switched on to the benefits of floating nuclear power units published in the Business Day media (July 14, 2025) ✍️ As SA awaits the finalisation of the country’s long-term plan for electricity generation, Russian state atomic energy corporation Rosatom is proposing the introduction of floating nuclear power stations as part of the future energy mix. The only such power station in the world, the 70MW Akademik Lomonosov has been in operation in the arctic port of Pevek in northeast Siberia, where it has been providing electricity to the Russian town since 2019. Rosatom is now building another four such reactor vessels that will be deployed in the other cities along Russia’s northern sea route, also known as the Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor. Ryan Collyer, CEO of Rosatom Central and Southern Africa says such floating power units (FPU) offer a flexible, scalable and environmentally responsible solution, it minimises the need for complex land-based infrastructure, reduces the time and cost of deployment, and can be relocated based on evolving energy needs. <...> Collyer says the FPU represents a revolutionary step forward in addressing Africa’s pressing energy challenges: “Across the continent, energy security remains a critical issue, and many remote coastal regions face limitations in grid connectivity. This technology provides not only reliable baseload electricity, but also opens opportunities for desalination, industrial development and local job creation.” <...> The coal technology was replaced with the Akademic Lomonosov’s clean nuclear technology. Now the snow is white as it should be, and residents don’t have to wash their windows as frequently as before. Read in full

#Opinion ✍️ Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs, former State Secretary, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (in 2005-2019) Grigory Karasin(May 17, 2025) 💬 Grigory Karasin: It is clear that Istanbul marked a crucial turning point. Despite the camouflage sheen of certain Kiev negotiators and the traditionally cunning faces of the European masterminds constantly surrounding Zelensky, thetalks in Türkiye should be regarded as a serious milestone on the path towards resolving the crisis in Ukraine. The first face-to-face meeting between the two delegations after the three years of fierce military confrontation — despite all the Western propaganda tricks — has nonetheless opened the door to contacts and solutions on specific, sensitive issues. 👉 Credit should be given to the calm and confident manner in which the Russian delegation conducted the dialogue. The POWs exchange and the agreement to continue negotiations are significant outcomes of a difficult and complex process. Russia’s objectives remain unchanged and were clearly stated by the President in June 2024. There is a growing sense that these goals are now being perceived with greater clarity, both by Kiev and its handlers. ❗️ The important thing is that the process has begun.

#Opinion ✍️Eduard Popov, Director of Center for Public and Information Cooperation "Europe" Nation-building in post-Maidan Ukraine: historical parallels Read in full 🔸The coup-d'état of February 21-22, 2014, meant more than a change of political regime in Ukraine. It was the end of symbolic history of the Soviet Ukraine and the beginning of something fundamentally different. 🔸 Euromaidan meant full rejection of the principles of social contract. The first legislative act of the new post-coup powers was to revoke the the Kivalov-Kolesnichenko language law that guaranteed a minimum rights for Russian-speaking population and ethnic minorities. After this, the total and radical offensive on everything Russian and non-Ukrainian started. 🔸 The Ukrainian state has a brief history. In post‑Maidan Ukraine, the origin of the Ukrainian state rests with the Ukrainian People's Republic. Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andrey Parubiy called for recognizing and legislating the succession and continuity of the present Ukrainian state from the Ukrainian People's Republic (formally existed from November 1917 to November 1920 - 3 years!), and for the period between "the Republic" and independent Ukraine... [i.e. from 1920 to 1991 when Ukraine prospered and became one of the most developed parts of the then Europe] to be considered a "Soviet occupation". ❗️ The historical myth of modern Ukraine is built on the absolute non-recognition of the Soviet historical inheritance. This results in a combination of incompatible things: based on the use of achievements of the tsarist, imperial and Soviet periods with a total negation of everything Russian and Soviet. 🔸 A research, carried out by Google, turned out that 76% of users from Ukraine use the Russian language while searching on the Internet. 10,1% of users only prefer to use Ukrainian – fewer than the number of those who use English (13,5%). However, immediately after the victory of Euromaidan, Ukraine launched an attack on the Russian language and the Russian national minority as a whole. 🔸 Books in Russian are removed from Ukrainian libraries and demonstratively thrown into landfills; streets in Ukrainian cities named after Russian writers and historical figures are renamed. Amid this Third Reich-style policy, the silence of Western leaders, who actually brought the guardians of ethnic Ukrainian purity to power, looks especially outrageous. 🔸 The so-called state language ombudsman makes a statement about offensive Ukrainization onthe 10th anniversary of the burning of the Odessa Trade Unions House, when, according to official data alone, 48 people – supporters of the Russian World and random persons – were killed. ☝️ It is not too difficult to see that policy adherence by the Ukrainian post‑Maidan authorities to the tradition of Ukrainian integral nationalism – a variety of Nazism. They act according to the principle: "One country – one people – one language."

#Opinion by Russia's MFA spokeswoman Maria #Zakharova 💬 The Ukrainian social media is packed with the obituaries of Ukrainian military personnel killed on April 13 in the strike on a venue in Sumy that brought together commanders from Ukrainian Seversk Tactical Group. Here is an account of the death of Ukrainian fighter Vladimir Zherebtsov. Here’s an obituary for Ukrainian army colonel Yury Yula. Here’s the statement by the mayor of the Ukrainian city Konotop Artyom Semenikhin containing direct accusation of Head of the Sumy Regional Military Administration Vladimir Artyukh who convened a meeting of Ukrainian combatants with the participation of women and children. Semenikhin openly demanded resignation of General Artyukh, who uses terrorist “civilian human shield” tactics to protect his thugs. This Kiev regime’s war crime was so obvious even to the Ukrainian people and the Kiev-controlled media that voices of outrage were heard among Zelensky’s inner circle as well. Verkhovnaya Rada Deputy Maryana Bezuglaya publicly demanded to find out who, fearing a Russian strike on a legitimate target, ordered to use women and children as human shields during the military event. Zelensky confirmed every accusation coming his way by firing Head of the Sumy Military Administration Artyukh yesterday, thus shifting the responsibility for this hideous war crime, which this time was directed against his own citizens, onto him. Does UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres know about all this? The day that followed the attack on a perfectly legitimate target, he was“deeply alarmed and shocked” by Russia’s Sunday missile strike on Sumy and accused our country of “attacking civilians.” I also have a question for Kallas and Merz who deliberately went ahead with verbal manipulations and poured dirt over Russia on Sunday and Monday. How are you now going to justify what your underling did? For some reason, representatives of our embassies in Sweden and Lithuania were summoned to the local foreign ministries. Apparently, poisoned by the fumes of competitive Russophobia, they were trying to take advantage of anything they could lay their hands on to further damage relations with our country which, as is, are unlikely to get revived for many years to come. When the Ukrainians attacked civilians on the Crimean Bridge, when SBU terrorists blew up Russian journalists in the Moscow suburbs and in St Petersburg, when drones attacked the Moscow Kremlin, and when Ukrainian punishers committed genocide and mass murder in the Kursk Region and buried old people alive in the village of Russkoye Porechnoye, these Euro peacemakers kept silent, and all the UN Secretariat did was diplomatically “call for peace.” When the gunmen get-together was liquidated, everyone started blaming Russia at once... When it became clear that the local authorities purposely used children as a shield to protect these ghouls, everyone went silent. If you think of it, after these publications and dismissals, they should now kneel in repentance before the whole world. The above facts not only prove, but demonstrate with disarming directness that the Kiev regime uses women and children as human shields, and then cast these staged performances as acts of alleged Russian aggression. The Ukrainian Nazi militants are, in fact, taking their own fellow citizens hostage. The blood of civilian victims is on the hands of Zelensky and his henchmen, as well as the conniving Western mob. The hoax in Bucha and the unrelenting attacks by the Ukrainian armed forces on Russian energy facilities even during the negotiated moratorium demonstrably show that this hideous circus has quite a few bloody tricks up its sleeve. https://t.me/MariaVladimirovnaZakharova/10208

#ExpertsSay#Opinion 📆 On 28 February 1992, the historic visit to South Africa by the Russian Foreign Minister culminated in the signing of an agreement to establish embassies and consulates in both countries. 🇷🇺🇿🇦 Until then, the relationship between Russia and South Africa had a complex history, marked by periods of cooperation and deep antagonism. Consular ties between the Soviet Union and the Union of South Africa were first established during World War II, reflecting their shared opposition to Nazi Germany. However, these ties were severed in 1956 by South Africa's apartheid regime, which viewed the Soviet Union as a major ideological adversary. For decades, the Soviet Union was a staunch supporter of the African National Congress in its struggle against apartheid. The support included providing arms, training ANC members, and actively campaigning against apartheid on the international stage. 👉 The late 1980s and early 1990s witnessed a significant shift in the relationship. As the Soviet Union underwent its own political transformations, it began to reassess its approach to South Africa. 👉 In 1991, the two countries agreed to establish "Interest Sections" within the Austrian embassies in Moscow and Pretoria, effectively serving as de facto diplomatic missions. This move signaled a gradual warmingof relations, with both sides engaging in dialogue and exploring avenues for cooperation. ✍️ The formal establishment of full diplomatic relationsin February 1992 occurred following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of the Russian Federation. The establishment of diplomatic relations was driven by a confluence of factors. For Russia, it represented an opportunity to engage with a strategically important and economically developed country. There was also a sense that establishing ties with the transitional government would pave the way for future cooperation with a post-apartheid South Africa. For South Africa, normalizing relations with Russia was seen as a way to break out of its international isolation and gain recognition from a major world power. It also opened possibilities for trade and economic cooperation. 🇷🇺🤝🇿🇦 The establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and South Africa laid the foundation for a multifaceted partnership that has continued to evolve in the years since. Despite the dramatic changes on the global stage, both countries have maintained a commitment to dialogue and cooperation on a range of issues. *Mr Boris Gorelik - Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Sub-Saharan Africa, Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences #RussiaSouthAfrica

#Opinion ✍️Dmitry Trenin, a research professor at the Higher School of Economics and a lead research fellow at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, member of the Russian International Affairs Council. Europe will eventually have to choose between the US and BRICS Read in full Key points: 💬 Rather than setting out to organize a genuine multipolar system based on mutual recognition of each nation’s core interests, <...> the US proceeded to enhance its exclusive and comprehensive dominance. • This year, at the #BRICS Summit in Russia’s Kazan, the group will for the first time include the leaders of Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Another major Eurasian institution is the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (#SCO) <...> to be admitted soon. A number of other Eurasian countries, from Turkey to Thailand and from the Malpes to Mongolia, have voiced their intention to join either BRICS or SCO. • To counter that trend among the members of what we increasingly call the World Majority, Washington has raised the profile of NATO in the Indo-Pacific; strengthened its Cold War-era bilateral and trilateral alliances in the Western Pacific, and founded a new one, #AUKUS, in the South Pacific. ❗️ All these multiple arrangements are completely dominated by the US and are aimed at containing and deterring Washington’s designated primary adversaries: China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea – with one overriding goal of defending America’s hegemonic position. • In contrast to that, neither BRICS nor the SCO is dominated by a single power, or a tandem/triumvirate of nations. BRICS’s recent expansion also suggests that it does not aspire to become a version of the West’s G7, as an elitist steering group, or directoire, for the non-Western world. • Neither BRICS nor the SCO is overtly anti-American or anti-Western: their main focus is internal rather than external, and they have their work cut out for them. • The emerging mutual security space within the SCO will make the continent – minus Western Europe, for the time being – far more stable, whether in terms of strategic stability in major-power relations, regional security systems, or the risks of terrorism. ☝️ Eventually, the countries of Western Europe – or far western Eurasia, if you like – will have to make a choice between staying in the US orbit as America’s power continues to shrink, or reaching out east to a vast and vibrant new world next door.