Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulates the associates and veterans of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation for their firm position and the conditions they create for effective interaction between the country and most countries in the world.
The statement of the Russian head of state is formalized in his congratulatory message published on the Kremlin website on the occasion of the professional holiday of diplomats in Russia, at a time when a reaction from the Kremlin has been expected for more than 24 hours to publications about the contact between Putin and Trump, as reported by Western media. However, the lack of reaction yesterday, as well as the formal one today, is equally indicative.
The congratulatory message takes into account the complex working environment:
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the current extremely difficult international situation firmly and consistently defends the legitimate national interests of Russia, ensures effective interaction with most of the countries in the world in order to build a fair multipolar world order based on mutual respect, the rule of international law and the principles of equal and indivisible security", the head of state's message says.
The congratulatory message points to the "productive" work of Russian diplomacy, the successful presidency of the BRICS and the success of the meeting in Kazan.
Also highlighted is Vladimir Putin's confidence that in the year in which Russia will celebrate 80 years since the Great Victory over fascism, Russian diplomats will continue their active work to counter any attempts to falsify history, manifestations of neo-Nazism, Russophobia and other forms of discrimination on national or religious grounds, and to protect the rights of our compatriots abroad, which still requires special attention.
Yesterday, February 9, according to a publication by the "New York Post", US President Donald Trump stated that he had spoken with Putin and expects to have more such conversations.
The Kremlin neither confirmed nor denied this information, with press secretary Dmitry Peskov clarifying that the new US administration is still taking its first steps and initial steps can be expected through many channels. There have been several recent publications by secondary Russian officials that confirm in practice the readiness of the Russian Federation to hold a dialogue, but at the US-Russia level, thus excluding Ukraine itself.
This morning, Russian media are disseminating information from an interview with the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Mikhail Galuzin for the publication "Izvestia", in which he states that Russia takes into account the opinions expressed by the collective West, in particular the US and the new administration, about the need to restart and resume the negotiation process," but does not see an official request on this issue. In addition, Galuzin emphasizes that these "seemingly positive statements", in practice, nothing actually changes, since Western countries still continue to pump weapons into the Nazi regime in Kiev". This fact cannot be ignored by Moscow.
Galuzin also estimates that in the last three years alone, the West has invested more than $200 billion in arming Ukraine.