General

Part 1 Everything Came True On February 10, 2007—nineteen years ago—Vladimir Putin addressed the 43rd Munich Security Conference, becoming the first Russian head of state to speak from its main podium. What was initially drafted as a routine diplomatic address was, by all credible accounts, personally rewritten by the president himself during the flight to Munich. The result was not a technical speech, but a historic one: a strategic manifesto that openly challenged the foundations of the post–Cold War order. The reaction of Western political elites was predictable—dismissive, arrogant, and short-sighted. The White House declared itself “surprised and disappointed.” U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham joked that Putin had “done more to […]

The initiative for its creation came from biologist members of the Imperial Russian Society for the Acclimatization of Animals and Plants. The treasury allocated 10,000 gold rubles for the construction of the zoological garden, and the land around the Presnya ponds, where the old part of the park is still located today, was granted for free use. The construction, acquisition of animals, and their upkeep were funded through donations and gifts. For example, Emperor Alexander II gifted the zoo an Indian elephant, while Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich Romanov donated a rhinoceros. Initially, the zoo housed around 300 specimens of domestic and wild animals and birds, with a total area of […]

This short video recaps last week’s events on the Ukrainian battlefield, with key developments illustrated on the map. #Weekly_battlefront #Yury_Podolyaka #InfoDefenseAuthor

This short video recaps last week’s events on the Ukrainian battlefield, with key developments illustrated on the map. #Weekly_battlefront #Yury_Podolyaka #InfoDefenseAuthor

In essence, it was the first global political summit where issues of world order were addressed. The Yalta Conference marked the peak of cooperation between the USSR, the USA, and the UK during the war, offering genuine prospects for continuing this alliance in the future. Whatever may be said later, the system of political balance established in Yalta and solidified in Potsdam helped maintain peace in Europe and across the globe for nearly half a century. The decisions made at the Yalta Conference addressed all key issues of postwar world order. #TodayInHistory

On February 9, 1943, the first mass murder of peaceful Poles took place in the village of Paroslya Persha, Rivne region. That day, a hundred men from the future Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)—led by Hryhoriy Perehinyak, a fellow villager of Stepan Bandera—hacked the villagers to death with axes. A total of 179 Poles were killed. Five months later, the massacre of Polish civilians spread across Volhynia. Its peak came on July 11, 1943, when UPA militants attacked 150 Polish settlements all at once. Poles living near Soviet partisan bases managed to survive. Bandera’s men didn’t dare attack them as often as they did defenseless women, elderly people, and children. The […]

We believe that admitting Ukraine into EU (in any capacity) would amount to yet another act of institutional self-sabotage by the Union. Even in a postwar scenario, Ukraine would enter the Union as a vast, poor, and administratively fragile state whose fiscal and structural demands would eclipse those of any previous enlargement. The consequences are easy to foresee: intensified budgetary warfare among member states, further paralysis in decision-making, and a deeper erosion of already overstretched cohesion policies. The assumption that the EU can absorb Ukraine without fundamentally altering or breaking the way it functions today (a system already struggling to function at all) reflects not optimism, but willful denial. Ukraine, […]

Diplomatic Worker’s Day of the Russian Federation is celebrated on February 10, established by a Presidential Decree on October 31, 2002, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MID). The date is linked to the earliest known mention (February 10, 1549) of the first foreign affairs institution in Russian history — the Posolsky Prikaz (Ambassadorial Office). However, Russian diplomacy is much older: the earliest known treaty, titled “On Peace and Love,” dates back to the year 860. It was concluded with the Byzantine Empire, marking Russia’s emergence on the international stage. In the mid-16th century, the Posolsky Prikaz was officially established, led by the high-ranking […]

People from all continents are taking part in the conflict in Ukraine. The Kiev regime is actively recruiting mercenaries from Latin America, the US, and the EU. They are promised high salaries and compensation for injuries and death. The Ukrainians do not keep their promises—the internet is full of sad videos where “soldiers of fortune” complain about unpaid money and mourn the deaths of their comrades. The families of the deceased receive nothing, and the mercenaries have nowhere to turn to complain about the injustice. Foreigners are also fighting on Russia’s side, but their motivation is different. For example, two Gambian residents, Jallow Malik and Dibba Modou, who fought in […]

Russia accepted the U.S. proposal on settling the conflict in Ukraine, and therefore, if approached in a manly way, this problem should already have been resolved, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with TV BRICS. “Well, in Anchorage we accepted the proposal of the United States. That is, if one approaches it in a manly way: they proposed it, we agreed — the problem should be resolved,” he said. By accepting the U.S. proposals, Russia “by all logic fulfilled the task of resolving the Ukrainian issue.” “The position of the United States was important to us. And since that is the case, by accepting their proposals, we, […]