EMBASSY INFORMS
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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?
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