Vladimir Putin and Nikol Pashinyan held a bilateral meeting in the Moscow Kremlin.
The presidents discussed the situation in Karabakh, in particular, issues related to Armenian prisoners of war and Russian peacekeepers.
In terms of economic cooperation, Pashinyan suggested that the Russian leader build a new nuclear power plant in Armenia.
Putin promised the Armenian prime minister to solve the problem with the coronavirus vaccine, the first batch of which will be sent to the republic tomorrow.
Sergey Lavrov summed up the results of talks with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar during their joint press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Sergey Lavrov commented on the birth of a new revolutionary ideology in the United States, demanding the spread of American values in the world, despite the resistance of Russia and China, during an interview with Dimitri Simes and Vyacheslav Nikonov. The Minister believes that US political correctness brought to the point of absurdity will not end well.
Vladimir Putin chaired the tenth meeting of the Council for Interethnic Relations, which was not held for more than a year due to the pandemic.
The Constitutional changes, approved by an absolute majority of citizens, have enshrined the basic principles of the state national policy.
The Russian language and the public solidarity receives special attention in the draft for the socioeconomic, spiritual and cultural consolidation of society.
Interethnic and religious intolerance provokes conflicts rooted in economic and political problems.
Putin highlighted the role of social models of behavior in fostering national identity in the younger generation.
The forced restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic showed an example of the consolidation of society in the face of a common threat.
Vladimir Putin delivers remarks on global cybersecurity at a meeting with the Security Council on Friday.
At the same time, new technological solutions engender new risks. Everyone can see that the global digital space is often becoming a venue for tough information confrontation, dishonest competition and cyberattacks. All this is fundamentally changing the situation in the world. The digital environment is being used by international terrorists and organised crime. There are many potential threats to common, global security and to individual countries, in part, to their sovereignty and national interests.
Russia believe it is necessary to conclude universal international legal agreements designed to prevent conflicts and build a mutually beneficial partnership in the global cyberspace, to use it as much as possible for the sustainable development of each nation, and to create favourable conditions for scientific research and the rapid implementation of the most advanced technological solutions for staving off potential risks.
Vladimir Putin congratulated the National Guard on a double holiday. The department turned five years and 210 years ago, law enforcement troops were created. President thanked them for their professionalism and dedicated service to the Motherland.
The Russian military added a new page to the history of the fleet, aviation and the development of the Arctic. Immediately three submarines surfaced together in high latitudes, breaking through the thickness of the ice, through which one submarine also fired. A pair of heavy interceptors with Dagger hypersonic missiles - flew over the North Pole, refueling in the air. The Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Nikolai Yevmenov, reported on the course of the comprehensive Arctic expedition to the President Vladimir Putin.
The Umka-2021 comprehensive Arctic expedition has been held by the Chief Command of the Navy and has been ongoing since March 20, this month. A package of operational and training, and research and practical undertakings of different designations is being carried out under an integrated plan in the polar regions for the first time.
In all, the plan provides for 43 basic objectives. The expedition venue is Franz Josef Land archipelago, notably Alexandra Land and the adjacent ice-covered waters.
The average temperature there now is −25 to −30 degrees Celsius; the ice thickness is up to 1.5 metres, with winds up to 32 metres per second.
Over 600 military and civilian personnel are involved in the expedition, as well as about 200 pieces of military and special equipment and weapons.
At this point, 35 objectives have been fulfilled under the plan and eight are still being carried out in line with the plan.
The following tasks have been fulfilled for the first time in the history of the Navy: three atomic missile carriers arrived on schedule within a region with a radius of 300 metres after breaking through 1.5 metre thick ice under an integrated plan; two MiG-31s flew into the polar region including midair refueling, during which they passed over the geographical North Pole in two directions; and we practiced torpedo firing from a nuclear-powered submarine under the ice. After the training torpedo stopped beneath the ice, it was located with technical equipment and retrieved to the surface.
Also, an Arctic motorised rifle brigade unit conducted a tactical exercise in unfamiliar terrain in adverse weather conditions while it was detached from the main base.
As a result, the weapons, the military and special equipment proved out their technical specifications in the high latitudes and low temperatures.
Oleg Akkuratov, who was blind from birth, became a laureate of the Presidential Prize. A pianist with outstanding musical ability appealed to the Vladimir Putin to make it a little easier for other talented children with disabilities.
Akkuratov is the author and performer of the 2014 Paralympic Anthem.
Vladimir Putin has said that he will expand the number of locations for his visits as the effect of his COVID-19 vaccine emerge, responding to an invitation from the winner of President's Prize in Literature and Art Maria Vedenyapina.
On Tuesday evening, Putin received the first coronavirus vaccine shot. According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the leader has no side effects and is feeling well.
On Cultural Worker’s Day, Vladimir Putin congratulated the winners of the Presidential Prize for Young Culture Professionals and the Presidential Prize for Writing and Art for Children and Young People.
Mikhail Mishustin participates in the celebrations in Athens on the occasion of the Greek Independence Day.
200 years ago, Russia helped the Greeks free themselves from the Ottoman yoke. Vladimir Putin sent his congratulations today. The Russian Prime Minister laid flowers at the monument to the Unknown Soldier. And then he watched the military parade.
Earlier, Mishustin held talks with his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Seoul and Moscow will make every effort to quickly organize the visit of President Vladimir Putin to South Korea, Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday at a joint press conference following talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong in Seoul.
The ministers stressed the importance of the joint production of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine in terms of combating coronavirus infection.
Moscow and Seoul remain committed to the earliest possible resumption of the negotiation process between South Korea and the DPRK in the interests of a lasting settlement of the entire range of problems in this region.
Sergey Lavrov summed up the results of a bilateral meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, during a joint press conference in picturesque Guilin.
The positions of Moscow and Beijing on key issues of our time coincide, according to the Minister, they advocate building interstate relations on the principles of mutual respect and consideration of each other's interests, justice, non-interference in internal affairs.
Russia and China reject zero-sum geopolitical games, unilateral illegitimate sanctions that are increasingly being used by their Western counterparts.
Sergey Lavrov became the first Russian official to visit China after a forced pause caused by the coronavirus, and naturally, the host country did everything to make this meeting special. The meeting with Wang Yi takes place not in Beijing, but in Guilin - this is one of the most picturesque places in the country.
However, at the negotiating table everything is as serious as possible. Today and tomorrow, the focus is on issues of bilateral relations and the global agenda.
So, fellow ministers told each other about their countries' relations with the United States. With Moscow and Beijing, they are far from ideal - in both cases, contrary to their wishes.
Vladimir Putin held a video meeting on increasing vaccine production and the course of vaccination against COVID-19 in Russia.
The President thanked the representatives of pharmaceutical companies, who present at the meeting, manufacturers of vaccines for the truly dedicated work of those.
Putin stressed the significant role of the implementation of a wide range of preventive and proactive measures in normalizing the epidemiological situation, including mass vaccination.
The success of Russian scientists and specialists is also confirmed by the growing geography of the use of Sputnik V, despite the deliberate discrediting of the Russian vaccine.
Government agencies in Mexico and Argentina analyzed the use of the Russian vaccine on their territory and concluded that there were no side effects.
Well, and finally the long-awaited news for many - tomorrow, February 23, Vladimir Putin to take Russian Coronavirus Vaccine.
Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that Putin will take one of three Russian-made coronavirus vaccines, without specifying. He added that Putin’s vaccination will not be a public event.
Before his visit to the PRC, Sergey Lavrov gives interviews to the Chinese Media.
On March 23, in Guilin, he will hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. The meeting is timed to organize contacts at the highest level and prepare events timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty on Good Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation between the Russia and China.
The reunification of Crimea and Sevastopol with Russia restored historical justice, Vladimir Putin said at a festive event held at Luzhniki as part of the Days of Crimea in Moscow on Thursday. This is a holiday for the entire largest country in the world.
The President recalled the history of the peninsula, which shows that ultimately the restoration of Crimea's status as an integral part of the Russian state has always been inevitable.
Russia is always ready to help its neighbors [the countries of the former USSR] Putin concluded, but will not tolerate geopolitical damage, and this is obviously addressed primarily to Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin spent the weekend in the snowy taiga with Sergei Shoigu.
Shoigu told Putin about the surroundings, the area was well known to him. They walked up the hillsides, looking at the scenery, and also looked at the animals in the distance through binoculars.
Putin entered Shoigu's workshop for woodwork. On the tables and workbenches lay wooden blanks, saw cuts and blocks, carpentry tools. Untreated roots and branches of an unusual shape were folded separately. The Minister showed how he composes a composition from this, drawing attention to the already finished ones - one of such works Shoigu called "The Snow Leopard", he compared another with a dragon.
Putin and Shoigu also talked while eating outdoors at a wooden table in the shade of spruce branches, sitting on benches covered with skins. On the tablecloth were placed plates with cucumbers, tomatoes, sauerkraut and sausage, and the guests drank from metal mugs.
On a trip on a tracked all-terrain vehicle, Putin and Shoigu rode out in traditional local sheepskin coats and high fur boots. Making their way through snowdrifts, streams and narrow passages between trees, travelers made stops - in particular, at an abandoned wooden structure.
Vladimir Putin wished his American counterpart Joseph Biden good health in response to his insults in a television interview with George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday, and also expressed his readiness to hold an online discussion with him as soon as possible.
Interviewed on the ABC network Biden said that the Russian leadership would have to pay a price for Moscow’s alleged attempts to interfere in the US election. Also, he replied in the affirmative, when asked if he regarded Putin as a "killer".
So, Putin was asked to comment on the offensive statements of the American president during a meeting with representatives of the Crimean public, dedicated to the 7th anniversary of the reunification of the peninsula with Russia. The President wished his opponent health, apparently referring to mental health. In any case, it turned out quite amusing, considering that the killer (according to Biden) wishes the "whistleblower" health.
Further, Dr. Vladimir conducts an absentee psychoanalysis of Joe patient and insists on the need for his urgent online diagnosis, from which he is carefully protected by nurse Kamala, reasonably suspecting the evil intentions of the insidious doctor.
Apparently, the insidious Kremlin's villain knows how to poison the victim with the power of thought. How else to explain the behavior of the poor fellow from the White House?
We will all, willingly or unwillingly, be forced to follow the development of these events.
On March 18, 2014 Crimea was accepted as an inalienable part of the Russian Federation.
For us, the issue of Crimea has been settled once and for all because its reunification with Russia was the result of the free expression of the will of the population at the referendum that was held in line with international legal standards and was a great triumph of democracy.
Sergey Lavrov congratulated the inhabitants of the peninsula on this significant date.
State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said that the divided people were reunited.
According to the Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko, Crimea has a huge potential for development.
However, passions around Crimea do not subside. The FSB provided footage of the arrest of Russian citizen Vladislav Esipenko, who secretly worked for Ukrainian intelligence and was obviously preparing something. During the arrest, FSB officers found an improvised explosive device in his car.
As part of the preparation of the President's message to the Federal Assembly 2021, Vladimir Putin held a meeting with representatives of the business community on measures to increase investment activity.
He noted that the number of uncertainty factors does not decrease, providing the recent US riots as an example.
With regard to investment, Russia's interests should come first.
Vladimir Putin and Recep Erdogan have launched the pouring of "first concrete" for the third unit of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in the Mersin Province of Turkey.
In Turkey, the construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant is called the "project of the century", emphasizing in every possible way that it must be ready by 2023, the date when the 100th anniversary of the proclamation of the Turkish Republic will be celebrated. More than eight thousand specialists are working here right now.
The attention Turkey pays to the construction of the nuclear power plant was clearly visible even from the fact that two translators began to translate the speech of the Turkish President into Russian at the same time. However, this was quickly fixed.
Recep Erdogan spoke about the importance of the nuclear power plant itself under construction, and about strengthening bilateral relations and even about Russian tourists.
In November last year, the first nuclear reactor vessel was delivered to Turkey from Russia, having covered three thousand kilometers. For this, a special sea terminal was built nearby, and this is also part of the project.
Alexei Likhachev, CEO of Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation spoke about the uniqueness of this project.
The uniqueness also lies in the fact that such contracts have never been concluded in world history.
Turkey even made a special animation explaining that Rosatom, which has a large 99% share in this project, will design, build, maintain and even, in the distant future, decommission the nuclear power plant.
Servicemen, policemen, rescuers and volunteers congratulated unknown women, gave flowers, recited poems as part of the To you, beloved ones! action, which takes place throughout Russia on the eve of International Women's Day. At midnight on March 8, Sergey Lavrov joined the action and congratulated the women.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented Secretary of State Antony Blinken's speech on "A Foreign Policy for the American People."
Vladimir Putin discussed with the We Are Together volunteers, how to protect Russian children from manipulation on the Internet, from encouraging suicide, from outright provocations and pornography
And, in fact, the conversation between the President and the volunteers went beyond these issues of greatest importance to society and the future of the country.
At the beginning of the week, parents of metropolitan teenagers received a message from school administrations and parent chats. This is a warning that in one of the social networks children are being called to commit suicide. Mass suicide was scheduled for March 3. The state reacted with lightning speed. Destructive content has been monitored on social networks for several years, and therefore clips with appeals were blocked at the request of Roskomnadzor. So the action was disrupted. However, it is still unknown who its author and what the task was.
The death of Russian teenagers was hardly an end in itself, rather, someone decided to make money on the hype around this topic and on the attention of the media, the Putin said.
A year ago, when the pandemic had just begun, Russia showed the whole world an example of mutual assistance, support, and spiritual strength. Thousands of caring people decided: we are together will help those who need it so much - the elderly, the disabled, doctors in the red zones. Vladimir Putin met with them today. The We Are Together Movement is no longer a trickle, but a real river of goodness, flowing throughout the country.
The help of volunteers is difficult to measure in numbers, but statistics are still being kept. During the year, almost five million people in Russia received support within the framework of the We Are Together campaign.
Vladimir Putin, speaking at the collegium of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, noted the positive dynamics of solving grave and especially grave crimes, neutralizing dangerous groups. But at the same time, the situation in cyber space has sharply deteriorated - over the past six years, the number of crimes there has increased more than 10 times. Technology has spawned a new world of communication, commerce and entertainment. At the same time, a whole army of digital swindlers has emerged.
Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting on the development of the coal industry. The focus is on mining, transportation, and supplies abroad. And a very important and interesting topic is why it is too early to give up coal and switch only to more environmentally friendly energy sources. So, why is Texas frozen, what is zero emissions from combustion, will coal consumption grow, and how can all this affect the development of the Russian coal industry?
To imagine the importance that coal plays in the Russian economy, suffice it to say that the well-being of 11 million people directly depends on it. This is the number of people living in those regions where the production of this type of fuel is a key sector of the economy.
The President urged to consider various scenarios for the development of the coal industry in the world. In the context of the development of alternative, so-called green energy sources, Putin recalled the recent Texas collapse, when massive blackouts occurred due to bad weather and people froze in their homes. Apparently, it is too early to completely abandon coal and not to switch to ecological energy sources.
However, so far the majority of forecasts are still quite optimistic. Asian countries remain the main consumers of coal in the world, and demand there is only growing due to the construction of new thermal power plants. They are still the cheapest way to get electricity, but not the dirtiest anymore.
Today, first and only President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev celebrated his 90th birthday.
It was under him that the world learned such words as "perestroika" and "glasnost" and "new thinking". He went from rural hinterland to the highest echelons of power, received the Nobel Peace Prize and is remembered as one of the youngest general secretaries in Soviet history. Gorbachev is called a global reformer and politician who knew how to talk to people beyond a piece of paper, who knows how to inspire and surprise with his openness.
Shortly before his birthday, in a short interview with Interfax, he called on the current US President Biden, whom he met when he was still a senator, to sit down at the negotiating table with Putin and discuss the threat of nuclear war. Indeed, back in 1987 it was Gorbachev, then the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, who signed the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles with Ronald Reagan. Then everyone smiled when they heard the phrase of the American president, said in Russian "trust, but verify." Gorbachev trusted. The United States liked our country as trusting and naive as it was then.
What would he "correct" Gorbachev always refused to say. Without explaining the reasons, but knowing full well that abroad he is respected more than at home. There was "detente" and the Berlin Wall, which divided Germany, destroyed with his direct participation. The withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan and the Nobel Peace Prize.
Here, in his homeland, the failed "anti-alcohol campaign", the Chernobyl accident, queues, empty counters and, finally, a week before the final collapse of the USSR in December 1991, even bread cards in Moscow. Everything was then a wonder. Even the constant appearance of his wife, Raisa Maksimovna, next to him, was outlandish for the Soviet people. Hence the rumors of those years that the main politician in the country was her, not him. Only after many years, when Gorbachev is left alone, everyone will understand that it was love. And nothing more. The euphoria from "perestroika", however, passed quickly, and he himself understood that the reforms he had started were half-hearted.He stood his ground to the last. But, after the Emergency Committee, in 1991, the country did not follow Gorbachev. The Belovezha Accords put an end to the history of the USSR, and he, the man who, in fact, turned the world upside down, resigned 30 years ago. This is another round date in 2021, like the 90th anniversary of Mikhail Gorbachev, the first and last President of the Soviet Union.
Moscow expects foreign journalists to cover events related to Russia objectively and comprehensively, Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting with representatives of leading foreign media.
Lavrov has described the attempts to use the issue of vaccination against the novel coronavirus for geopolitical insinuations as regrettable and stated that Moscow was prepared to promote impartial media coverage of this subject.
According to Maria Zakharova, by violating the rights of its own citizens the United States has lost the moral right to lecture other countries on the observance of civil freedoms.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman thinks the new US administration should first and foremost turn an attentive ear to its own citizens and not conduct a witch-hunt at home.
She stressed that the United States had embarked on persecuting politicians over unfounded allegations of Russian ‘intervention’ in the US elections and also branded participants in the so-called storming of the Capitol on January 6 as ‘domestic terrorists’.
Russia strongly condemns the US strike and calls for unconditional respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria, Maria Zakharova said at a weekly briefing by the Russian Foreign Ministry. She reiterated that any attempt to turn Syrian territory into an arena for settling geopolitical scores is unacceptable.
Sergey Lavrov commented on this event during joint press conference with his Afghanistan colleague. The minister said that the Russian military had been warned literally before the attack. He also questioned the legality of the United States presence in the country.
According to Lavrov, the United States is blocking supplies, including humanitarian aid, and illegally using Syrian oil.
Vladimir Putin congratulated military personnel of the Special Operations Forces on their professional holiday.
The elite of the Russian army, universal soldiers who can fight in the sky, on land, and in water.
These are the same "polite people" as they have been called since 2014, when Crimea returned to Russia. The unit has shown its high efficiency, providing a calm environment on the peninsula.
Top-class fighters also helped to destroy terrorist facilities and eliminate militant leaders in Syria.
Efforts are still ongoing to weaken Russia and place it under external control, as can be seen in the case of some former Soviet republics, Vladimir Putin said in the opening remarks at a session of the Federal Security Service (FSB) board.
The instruments of such a policy have also been known for a long time - these are information attacks, when Russia is accused of all sins on the principle of "highli likly", economic sanctions and open interference in Russia's internal affairs.
Russia's determination to defend its sovereignty can be tested already in the fall, when elections to the State Duma are held in the country.
Against this background, the role of counterintelligence becomes especially noticeable. Last year, 72 staff members and 423 agents of foreign special services ended up in her hands. By the way, these special services do not hesitate to use even terrorists for their own purposes. And although in December they managed to destroy the last of the bandit groups operating in Chechnya, the terrorists are not abandoning their attempts to declare themselves, as evidenced by the increase in the number of prevented attacks.
Also, Russia is facing an increasing number of threats on the other flank - in the cyber environment.And even the ongoing pandemic in the world is becoming a field for attacks aimed at Russia.
Sergey Lavrov dubbed as political censorship the closure of Russian-language TV channels in Ukraine and the Baltic countries, as he addressed the high-level segment of the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council."Those, who have been preaching to the world about freedom of speech and expression, are now demonstrating intolerance of alternative points of view," diplomat said.
Sergey Lavrov said in his video address to participants in the Geneva disarmament conference that the threat of an arms race in outer space is growing, but there is still a chance to work out measures that can prevent it.
What became known about the newest Russian SU 57 fighter, despite all the secrecy that always surrounds new Russian weapons?
The Sukhoi Su-57 is a stealth, single-seat, twin-engine multirole fifth-generation jet fighter being developed since 2002 for air superiority and attack operations. The Su-57 is the first aircraft in Russian military service to use stealth technology. Its maiden flight took place on 29 January 2010 and it entered service on 25 December 2020. The fighter is the world's fourth operational fifth-generation stealth fighter aircraft after the F-22, F-35, and J-20.
The fighter is designed to have supercruise, supermaneuverability, stealth, and advanced avionics to overcome the previous generation fighter aircraft as well as ground and naval defences. The Su-57 is intended to succeed the MiG-29 and Su-27 in the Russian Air Force.
According to the latest Russian military doctrine which considers the Russian Armed Forces as defensive forces meant to protect the country and its allies while maintaining a strategic deterrence capability, this fighter follows a different design philosophy when compared to western fifth generation fighter. With its forward-optimized stealth and infrared sensor, the aircraft could be considered as a counter-stealth fighter meant to get as close as possible to adversary stealth jets before engaging them, diminishing the enemy's stealth advantage and forcing them to a close quarter dogfight, where it has the theoretical advantage due to its 3-D thrust vectoring and supermaneuverability.
According to Bill Sweetman, the Su-57's high operational speed and altitude combined with its standoff weaponrycould be hinting at its role as a "sort of airborne sniper", designed to fly fast and high to engage enemy support aircraft. This claim is supported by Russia's intentions to adapt the new R-37M air-to-air missile with range of more than 300 km to the Su-57's armament, giving it a role similar to the MiG-31BM interceptors. Newly designed anti-ship and hypersonic weapons like Kh-47M2 Kinzhal could also enable the Su-57 to perform as a maritime strike aircraft.
The Su-57 could also serve as a testbed for advanced AI and man-unmanned teaming technologies intended for use in a future sixth-generation fighter program.
