Partially true
Monday 29 May 2023
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“The unfair treatment of women and children among the refugees are especially outrageous, evoking grave concerns and solemn condemnations from more and more people upholding justice of the international community.”
China ignores Belarusian source of crisis, efforts by Lithuania to rectify it, and the spat over Taiwan office. -
“Apple made corrections to the geographical names of the territorial entities Crimea and the city with federal status Sevastopol (in the company’s products). (The names) have been brought in line with the Constitution of the Russian Federation.”
Apple changed its weather application to display Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and the city of Sevastopol as Russian territory, but only when viewed inside Russia. Russian media and politicians omitted that detail when announcing the changes. -
“In recent years, mortality [in road accidents] has decreased in this country. From 19 people per 100,000 population, it has already fallen to 13 people, but... the final goals we set are even more stringent: to 4 people per 100,000 population.”
Traffic fatality rates in Russia are falling and hover around the number cited by the minister of internal affairs. The goal to reduce the rate to about that of Germany in five years is ambitious. It took Germany nearly a quarter of a century to achieve a similar reduction. -
“Despite the sanctions, the portfolio of military orders for Russian military equipment continues to be very significant. It is now estimated at $54.5 billion. There are more than 100 countries among Russia's partners.”
While Russia’s arms sector has been least affected by sanctions, independent reports do not confirm Medvedev’s numbers -
“In 2005, our mortality rate was 16.1 per 100,000 people. We managed to reduce it by 23%... We have reduced mortality from cardiovascular diseases by 37%, from road accidents – by 54.5%, from tuberculosis – by four times.”
While the overall mortality rate in Russia has decreased in the last 14 years, still Russia's ranks in comparison with global indicators are higher than average. Moreover, the prognosis for the next 15 years are pessimistic. -
“The archive materials...are accessible to the Bulgarian archive services and researchers, including for the originals, a part of them was returned to Bulgaria in 1949 and 1958 during the Soviet Union. Now, however, the originals cannot be handed over in accordance with Federal Law No. 64 of April 15, 1998 ‘On Cultural Valuables Displaced [to the USSR] as a result of World War II and Located on the Territory of the Russian Federation.’ But I will repeat again, access to them is open for the Bulgarians.”
The Russian ambassador speaks the truth when he says Russian law prevents Moscow from returning the Bulgarian archives. However, international law states the archives should be in Bulgaria. And the ambassador is wrong when he says the nation’s documents are readily available to Bulgarians. -
“Demanding from the Russian side answers to queries by investigators that seemingly have already been fully answered by Russia, the Dutch authorities simply categorically refuse to give up their own secrets, which could be useful in the course of investigation.”
While the Joint Investigation Team has not shared with Russia all of the material from its ongoing investigation of the MH-17 shoot-down, they have concluded Russia is to blame for the downing, and say Moscow has not fully responded to the Joint Investigative Team requests. -
"Martial law, which must be approved by the [Ukrainian] Parliament and which now can be introduced for 60 days, entails a series of possible infringements of the rights and freedoms of citizens and restrictions, the possibility of the seizure of property, vehicles and fund for the state and army.”
The potential of martial law in Ukraine following the escalation between Moscow and Kyiv in the Azov Sea opens up the possibility that civic rights and press freedoms will be restricted. -
“I will not guess how the results of these elections will affect the future of our relations… We firmly know that the internal political perturbations in the United States directly affect Washington's relations with Moscow, and our relations, our contacts, our partnership on global security issues that many countries of the world are waiting for, have become hostage to these internal political squabbles in America.”
The Russian foreign minister is correct that domestic political turmoil affects the U.S. administration’s foreign policy. However, U.S. political divisions are not the main reason for deteriorating relations between Washington and Moscow. Russia’s own actions damaged relations more. -
"Oleg Sentsov has stopped his hunger strike, giving a written statement on that. He has also agreed to start eating.”
A Russian prison official announced Oleg Sentsov would end his hunger strike after 145 days. What he did not say is that Sentsov faced a force-feeding regimen that he expected would begin imminently. -
“The international company Ipsos is researching RT’s audience at our request. According to the company’s data, over the course of the last two years our audience has grown by one-third. 100 million people in 47 countries are now watching RT every week. RT’s Website in Arabic has beaten all other Arabic language channels, including the famous Al Jazeera and Al Arabyia, in terms of the number of visitors. Our Spanish Website is outpacing the BBC and CNN in Spanish.”
While RT in English is facing a credibility crisis, the Russian state media outlet’s audience in Arabic and Spanish languages is growing. However, Simonyan withheld information about multiple legal charges RT is facing internationally. -
”On July 4, 2016, the Polish side temporarily suspended the Agreement on Local Border Traffic under the pretext of holding the NATO Summit in Warsaw and the World Youth Day in Krakow... The events that triggered the above actions by Warsaw have long passed. But the Polish side is not eager to end the impasse, which is very surprising…As of today, Poland does not show interest in resuming the LBT. As a result, people's interests on both sides of the border are affected.”
Open border policy and free movement of goods and people is one of the founding principles of the European Union. However, Russia’s annexation of Crimea, armed conflict in Ukraine and buildup of troops inside Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, abused the EU’s willingness to open its borders to Russia.