EMBASSY INFORMS
Welcome to Moscow. We are greeting you both as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Sierra Leone and as Chairman of the African Union Committee of Ten (C-10) which is engaged in defending Africa’s interests in the reformation process of the UN Security Council. On August 8−9 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will visit Jakarta for talks with his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi. The officials will discuss a broad range of issues pertaining to the further development of bilateral political, trade, economic and humanitarian cooperation, as well as international and regional matters. On 20 April, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation satisfied a legal claim of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation by enforcing a ban against Jehova’s Witnesses and its subsidiaries in Russia on the grounds of extremist activities under Federal Law “On Counteraction of Extremist Activity” 114-FZ of 25th July 2002. On 17 July 2017, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal against the decision lodged by the Administrative Centre of the Russian branch of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The humanitarian situation in Syria remains complex. According to the UN, 13,5 million Syrians or more than half of the country’s population need help. Of the UN 2017 humanitarian appeal for Syria of $3,4 bn, so far $702 mln has been allocated by donors. The Syrian public health system, which was once considered the best in the region, has now significantly deteriorated and its state is of particular concern. There is limited access of the population to the medical and sanitary services, and the immunization from the main diseases remains at a very low level. As of the end of June, 17 cases of poliomyelitis were registered in the country. The threat of epidemic remains high. Due to the lack of clean drinking water, outbreaks of dysentery, cholera and typhoid fever are ever more possible. On July 19, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as per tradition, met in Moscow with the ambassadors of the EU member countries and the head of the EU delegation to the Russian Federation. On July 17, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov held consultations in Washington, D.C. with US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas A. Shannon on pressing bilateral issues.
The two officials continued to look for ways to resolve pending issues, specifically regarding the illegal seizure of Russian property in the United States by the Barack Obama Administration. Russia stressed that if Washington does not address this and other concerns, including persistent efforts to hinder the operation of Russia’s diplomatic missions, Russia has the right to take retaliatory measures in accordance with the principle of reciprocity. In October 2015, I argued against the leader comments in The Scotsman that “Russian airstrikes in Syria have heightened international tensions to new levels” and calls for “wide international pressure to stop these actions”.
Since then quite a lot has transpired, yet the UK media seems unaware of the fact that the situation in Syria has seen a positive change following the launch of Russia’s military operation. That makes me write again. Question: Why does the new expanded Russian visa application form have to be introduced for British nationals? The situation in Syria remains tense. We continue to monitor the positive trends that give hope for reversing the Syrian crisis and achieving a lasting political settlement and restoring peace and order throughout the country. Currently, work is underway to improve the mechanisms of functioning and controlling the de-escalation zones designed to reduce the level of violence in Syria, and to improve the humanitarian situation of the affected Syrian population. I NOTE a rather questionable article by Mark McLaughlin (“Russians lurking near Faslane to eavesdrop on nuclear submarines", The Herald, July 11).
Do you really believe that 145 million Russians would elect a leader who would command his nuclear submarines to chase someone's sole and lonely operative U-boat which is firing missiles in the opposite direction or Type 45 destroyers with faulty engines or an aircraft carrier without aircraft on it, all of them being located in Scottish waters? As State Secretary Markus Ederer said, there is every reason to say that the bilateral year has been a success. Yet another bright page has been written in the new history of bilateral relations. Hundreds of activities were conducted; the Russian-German youth parliament was at work; scientific workshops, forums and numerous educational, cultural and sporting events took place. I hope the comprehensive programme has given all those present, as well as those who also took part in this year’s activities, the broadest possible opportunities for informal and creative communication, which makes it possible to frankly discuss any issues and state one’s viewpoint. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to media questions at the Korber Foundation, Berlin, July 13, 2017 We believe that the current round of Geneva talks has set off to a better start due to the participation of all the main opposition platforms – the Riyadh, Moscow and Cairo groups. The constitutional reform and the fight against terrorism are priorities, but not forgetting about two other issues (running the country prior to the adoption of a new constitution and holding elections). Eventually the constitution should reflect the concerns of all ethnic, religious and political groups of Syria without exception. This is the only way to ensure the stable functioning of the Syrian state and prevent the spread of terrorist threat. Meanwhile, the current constitution provides for a broad range of opportunities to expand the participation of opposition representatives in running the state. We actively support the efforts of UNSG’s Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura to encourage the Syrian parties to engage in a productive conversation on constitutional reforms. Russia continues to view the European Union as a neighbour and our main trade and economic partner. We believe that development of bilateral ties based on the principles of equality and mutual respect meets the long-term interests of our peoples as well as has the potential to strengthen global and regional security and stability. Russia has long been an advocate of creating a community of equal and indivisible security in the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasia. As a first step, we suggested an exchange of maps showing locations of the military forces in Europe as well as of military doctrines in order to build trust on the basis of transparency and openness.
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