Birthday Girl – Margarita Simonyan
On Sunday, April 6, the day that the notorious propagandist who is the editor-in-chief of the international media group “Russia Today (RT)” and the RT TV channel, turned 45, she received unalloyed praise from senior Russians:
Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s Foreign Minister:
“You are rightfully considered one of the most authoritative Russian journalists. We appreciate your efforts aimed at strengthening Russia’s position in the global information space and objective coverage of internationally significant events.”
Alexander Bastrykin, Chairman of Russia’s Investigative Committee:
“Your name has become a symbol of quality journalism, capable of conveying the truth and boldly speaking about the most inconvenient topics in the context of global information challenges.”
Vladimir Gundyayev, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow:
“As a talented leader, in the conditions of total ideological pressure on our country, you were able to create large-scale media platforms that objectively cover the most important events in the Fatherland and abroad, help to convey Russia’s position to the world community, and contribute to the development of international dialogue.”
He also decreed that Simonyan should receive the Church Order of the Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga, 3rd degree.
Spokesperson from Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office
Japan’s Northern Territories Association was declared an “undesirable organization” as it “exploits the topic of the so-called ‘northern territories’ – the islands of Iturup, Kunashir and the Lesser Kuril Ridge” and “publicly declares its non-recognition of Russia’s jurisdiction over them.”
It believes that the supposedly non-governmental organization (NGO) is secretly financed from the Japanese state budget and “is participating in the development of new methods for returning the Kuril Islands to Japanese sovereignty and has distributed literature and souvenirs containing “elements of cartographic expansion,” whatever that means.
Andrei Kartapolov Head of Russia’s State Duma’s Defense Committee:
In response to suggestions that amnesties could be offered to Russian criminals to mark the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, Kartapolov said that prisoners should instead be given the opportunity to sign a contract with the Defense Ministry and go to war to “prove their love for the Motherland.”
He added, “Today, those who are in places of imprisonment and love their homeland have a good chance to prove it by signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense. And today, when the country is conducting the SVO [“special military operation,” i.e. invasion of Ukraine], nothing more is needed. Everything else is from the evil one.”
Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Security Council
Vasily Nebenzya told a UNSC meeting on Monday April 7 that the April 4 attack on Kryvyi Rih was aimed at military targets saying: “The Russian Defense Ministry reported that as a result of a high-precision strike by a missile with a high-explosive warhead on the site of a meeting with commanders of formations and Western instructors, the enemy’s losses amounted up to 85 servicemen and foreign officers.”
He added that the deaths of 20 civilians including nine children was “… due to the unprofessional actions by the Ukrainian air defense forces, a Ukrainian missile fired for interception led to civilian deaths in the area adjacent to the restaurant.”
Nebenzya said that Kyiv “immediately tried to shift the focus from military losses” and accused Russia of attacking civilians in an attempt to undermine the US-Russian dialogue to seek a “peaceful sustainable, long-term solution to the Ukrainian conflict.”
He also added: “We are open to a meaningful and practical dialogue, but we will not allow anyone to deceive us or to use this negotiation process, directly or indirectly, to enhance the military potential of the Kyiv regime.”
Ramzan Kadyrov, Head of the Chechen Republic:
Putin’s cheerleader commented on the Sunday, April 7 knife attack on a traffic police post in Achkhoy-Martan, Chechnya, in which a policeman died along with the attacker, who was named as 16-year-old Ramzan Dubaev the next day.
Kadyrov said, without offering any evidence, that some of those who were behind the attack were based in Turkey, and the leader of the “terrorist group” was a Ukrainian citizen, before adding:
“A special responsibility lies with the parents and immediate relatives of the terrorists. Each of them must understand that they would have to answer for the criminal actions of their loved ones if they knew but did nothing, condoned, or, even more so, encouraged the path of violence.”
He followed up on Wednesday, April 9 during a meeting with regional leaders of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Russian National Guard, and the FSB that he intended to deport relatives of those involved people saying, “We need to expel from the territory of the republic the fathers and brothers of those who are behind this. Their property needs to be confiscated.”
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova: No issue of Putin’ you in the picture would be complete with one or two of her public pronouncements.
On April 9, she commented on the report published by the so-called “International Public Tribunal on the Crimes of Ukrainian Neo-Nazis” about war crimes of Ukrainian armed forces in Russia’s Kursk Region.
She said the West will no longer be able cover up the crimes of the Kyiv regime by turning a blind eye to the atrocities of its armed forces:
“It is important that nothing be missed. Systematic work must be carried out despite all attempts in the West, as we note, to cover up, to stall this issue. We assume that all those responsible must be identified and will be punished.”
Maxim Grigoryev, Chairman of the [so-called] International Public Tribunal:
He said that his report on the Crimes of Ukrainian Neo-Nazis in the Kursk Region said his team had interviewed more than 100 residents of the Kursk region and that of the numerous Ukrainian war crimes catalogued in his report, only a small number of them are mentioned in the report.
He added that “The data we have obtained clearly reveal the Kiev regime’s systematic killings of Kursk region’s civilians, including women and the elderly, murders carried out using firearms, [unmanned aerial vehicles] UAVs, kamikaze drones, explosive devices, as well as the deliberate destruction of churches, hospitals, homes of civilians, and other civilian infrastructure.”
Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Russia’s Security Council:
The former Russian president and prime minister reverted to his favorite subject on April 8 – the “probability” of a nuclear war.
“15 years ago, the START III Treaty was signed in Prague.”
“Unfortunately, it did not reduce the risk of nuclear war for which the US and its allies are to blame. They decided that they could formally maintain nuclear parity with Russia while at the same time waging undeclared war against us using unlimited sanctions that put the world at risk of World War III.”
“Even though the Biden administration, led by a senile man, insisted that there was no risk of a nuclear conflict – this was a cynical lie: the threat had reached its highest level.
“The Trump administration at least pays lip service to this – though it has proposed spending a record $1 trillion on defense. The European idiots do not and have instead begun to flaunt their meager strategic [nuclear] capabilities again.”
The situation is such that even with a complete end to the conflict around the so-called “Ukraine,” nuclear disarmament in the coming decades is impossible. The world will create new, more destructive types of weapons, and more and more countries will acquire nuclear arsenals.”
“How this will end has long been known.”