Baltics
Thursday 9 February 2023
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![Vyacheslav Volodin]()
Vyacheslav Volodin
Chairman, Russian State Duma
“This is important to know for all the 'mavericks' and traitors who are surprised today that human rights and freedoms are just decorations for the United States and Europe.”
Read more...Latvia pulled the Russian exiled channel’s broadcast license in what some called censorship. But whatever the merits, Russia ranks near the bottom in press freedom. -
![Dmitry Peskov]()
Dmitry Peskov
Russian Presidential spokesperson
“We remind you that Russia, throughout all of its history, has never attacked anyone.”
Read more...Russia has engaged in numerous offensive military operations against its neighbors and others. Now, it’s rolling troops into Ukraine. -
![Dmitry Peskov]()
Dmitry Peskov
Russian Presidential Spokesman
"All these statements can contribute to the destabilization of the situation … [by] the Ukrainian leadership, who on the sly, if you will, can decide to start a new civil war in their country and try to solve the problem of the southeast.”
Read more...It is Russia, not Ukraine, that is threatening a military offensive, and Ukraine’s “civil war” is a Russian-fed incursion in Donbas. -
![Russian Embassy in Estonia]()
Russian Embassy in Estonia
Embassy Twitter feed
“Then US Secretary of State James #Baker assured: ‘There would be no extension of @NATO one inch to the East.’ ”
Read more...Baker’s words are taken out of context. Then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has denied they were a “promise” not to expand NATO. -
![Sergei Lavrov]()
Sergei Lavrov
Russian foreign minister
“NATO has become a purely #geopolitical project aimed at taking over territories orphaned by the collapse of the Warsaw Treaty Organization and the Soviet Union.”
Read more...NATO does not “take over” member countries, and Ukraine is a sovereign state. NATO has an open-door policy for nations wishing to join. -
![Anatoly Glaz]()
Anatoly Glaz
Press secretary for Belarus Foreign Ministry
“The world still remembers well the events of 2015-2016, when refugees spent months sheltering under the open sky in European capitals. Not to mention the ongoing loss of life in the Mediterranean region, the English Channel and the Polish forests.”
Read more...The refugee crisis was largely caused by Russia and its intense bombing campaign to help Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad in the civil war. -
![Alexander Lukashenko]()
Alexander Lukashenko
president of Belarus
“We are heating Europe. They are still threatening us that they will close the border. And if we shut off natural gas there?”
Read more...Belarus does not heat Europe; it simply transits natural gas from Russia. Experts say Lukashenko could never shut the pipeline without the Kremlin’s approval. -
![Sergey Lavrov]()
Sergey Lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister
“Yesterday, in some political science discussions, they asked: Why, when refugees came from Turkey to the European Union, the EU allocated funding so they stay on the territory of the Republic of Turkey? Why is it also impossible to help Belarusians who have certain needs so that refugees, whom Poland and Lithuania do not want to let on their territory, live in normal conditions?”
Read more...Belarus has been luring and flying in Middle Eastern migrants to send them to the Polish and Lithuanian borders. -
![TASS]()
TASS
Russian state news agency
“Russia has repeatedly denied the accusations of complicity in hacker attacks in Germany. No German agency or organization concerned has provided any evidence that might prove the charges …”
Read more...The cyber intrusions in Germany are attributed to the hacker collective Ghostwriter, which has been associated with Russia. -
![Alexander Lukashenko]()
Alexander Lukashenko
President of Belarus
“Starting from Belavia, when those crazy people [abroad] started to stifle our company. Now it is clear why.”
Read more...In fact, the EU banned Belavia because Belarus forced an Irish plane to land in Minsk to arrest an opposition journalist. -
![Andrei Savinykh]()
Andrei Savinykh
Chairman of the Standing Commission on International Affairs, Belarus House of Representatives
“Accusing Belarus of organizing migrant smuggling into Lithuania is a vivid example of political slander and unfounded allegations.”
Read more...Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said earlier that he would open the gates to the EU for migrants. -
![BELTA]()
BELTA
Belarusian state media outlet
“The pilot-in-command however decided to make a turn and head to Minsk. No one forced him to do this, no one gave him such a command. … He could have decided to keep going and left the Belarusian airspace within two minutes.”
Read more...The claim is contradicted by flight data, witnesses, and even earlier statements by Belarus government sources.
