Crimea
Thursday 25 April 2019
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![Maria Zakharova]()
Maria Zakharova
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokespersons
"Can NATO bring anyone closer? History does not know any such examples. What I can see is that NATO is adding new members, who are now being pulled in by various methods.”
Read more...NATO membership is based on invitation and approval by existing member states. Countries must meet certain standards to be eligible. -
![Andrei Koshkin]()
Andrei Koshkin
Head of the Plekhanov Academy’s political science and sociology department
“In Ukraine, there is an extremely difficult situation with the supply of ships to the Navy: there are practically no such deliveries, and what NATO countries share with them is, in essence, junk.”
Read more...The ships that NATO nations are providing to the Ukrainian navy technologically are more advanced and in a better shape than most of the Soviet-made vessels in Russia’s own navy. Experts say the NATO-provided ships significantly enhance the Ukrainian navy’s capabilities. -
![Sergey Lavrov]()
Sergey Lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister
“I’ve repeatedly said that as soon as Edward Snowden chose freedom – refused to fly to where he was threatened with the electric chair – the Americans immediately began trying to punish us.”
Read more...Apart from the rhetoric of a former CIA director, the U.S. Justice Department confirmed in writing that Snowden never faced capital punishment. Lavrov falsely connects the Magnitsky Act to the Snowden affair. -
![Grigory Karasin]()
Grigory Karasin
Russian Deputy Minister of the Foreign Affairs
“Certainly, the creation of explicit complexities for citizens' expression of their will casts a shadow on the entire electoral process. Inevitably, questions arise to the authorities, who are thus trying to influence the outcome of the vote."
Read more...Recognized international elections monitors such as those of the OSCE declared the election to be fair and competitive. Ukrainian citizens in Russian-occupied Donbas were prevented from voting by local authorities, not the Kyiv government. -
![TASS]()
TASS
Russian state-owned news agency
"On March 27, the Federal Security Service in cooperation with the Russian Interior Ministry and the Federal National Guard Troops Service foiled the activities of a cell of the Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami international terror group during a special operation in Crimea and detained 20 people from among its chieftains and ordinary members,’ the FSB stressed.”
Read more...Hizb ut-Tahrir, while controversial, is not an “international terror group,” and the suspects claim the FSB planted incriminating material in their homes during the raid. -
![Crimean Museums]()
Crimean Museums
Nations gallery -- Bakhchysarai, Crimea
“There are no legal, cultural or historical reasons to hand these items over to Kyiv."
Read more...Following the annexation of Crimea, the status of a collection of gold items lent to a Dutch museum prior to the Russian seizure remains in limbo, with both Kyiv and the local museums laying claim to the priceless artifacts. -
![Maria Zakharova]()
Maria Zakharova
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman
“Our country has repeatedly historically reaffirmed its role as a state that is the guarantor of stability and security, a party that brings peace, not aggression. The Second World War and the role of the Soviet Union in it are a global example of this.”
Read more...The Soviet role in World War II is part of the historical record and predates the current Russian Federation. More recent history shows Russia not only as destabilizing influence in Europe but an occupying power in Crimea and questionable initiatives in Syria and Africa. -
![NTV - Russian television channel]()
NTV - Russian television channel
Elon is ours! Musk, who suddenly spoke Russian, is now under suspicion: who is he – the Kremlin’s agent, Stierlitz or a victim of the Russian hackers?”
Read more...To some it was just a joke but in Russia Elon Musk’s phrase put him in the Kremlin’s propaganda dictionary, where one possessive pronoun divides the world into good and evil. But it did not make the entrepreneur a Russian spy. -
![Vladimir Putin]()
Vladimir Putin
President of the Russian Federation
“Russia will be forced to create and deploy types of weapons that can be used not only for those territories from which there will be a corresponding direct threat to us, but also for those territories where there are decision-making centers on the use of missile systems that threaten us.”
Read more...In his speech to the Duma, President Vladimir Putin virtually admitted Russia has deployed intermediate-range missiles that the U.S. and NATO say violate the INF treaty. His threat against Washington is not new. Putin said early in 2018 Russia had developed missiles to strike the U.S. -
![Vladimir Putin]()
Vladimir Putin
President of Russia
“Russia has entered into a difficult demographic period. The birth rate is falling. The reasons for this are objective. But this doesn’t mean that we should accept this situation. At the beginning of the 2000s we managed to reverse the negative trend. It seemed impossible but we did it.”
Read more...Significant improvement in Russia’s demographics began only around 2006. Population growth versus deaths balanced out only in 2012 and positive growth peaked in 2015 before going into another decline. -
![Svobodnaya Pressa]()
Svobodnaya Pressa
Russian News Outlet
“USA Air Forces: ‘Thanks very much to the Russians for taking Crimea”
Read more...None of the U.S. Air Forces’ commanders or representatives, including General Tod Wolters, ever said the words cited in the Russian media outlet. -
![Dmitry Medvedev]()
Dmitry Medvedev
Russian Prime Minister
“The latest wave of anti-Russian sanctions is related not to our relations with the Americans but to the domestic problems in the United States.”
Read more...Russia's PM claims a tougher version of anti-Russian sanctions proposed last year is a “domestic” U.S. affair, unrelated to bilateral ties. But while efforts to pass sanctions in the U.S. have hit domestic hurdles, the sanctions themselves were drafted in reaction to Moscow’s international acts.
