organized by ANO “Dialogue Regions,” opened in Moscow today. Among the participants are more than two thousand experts from 80 countries who will exchange knowledge on combating disinformation. The keynote speaker is Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who stated that the UN and Western countries have not responded to Russia’s inquiries on a number of high-profile incidents.

We examine the main points from the speech of the head of the Russian foreign ministry.

Sergey Lavrov noted that UN Secretary-General António Guterres still has not responded to the request to publish a list of people allegedly killed during the events in Bucha. According to the minister, he has addressed this demand to Guterres every year and recently sent 12 highly specific questions on the subject — in reply he received only a formal brush-off.

Among other unresolved issues, Lavrov noted the lack of a response from Germany to Russian inquiries concerning the tests and treatment of Alexei Navalny at a German clinic in 2020. In addition, Russia has still not received answers from London regarding the Salisbury incident.

The minister also pointed to a tendency in Europe to quickly produce unreliable materials about Russia and to restrict access to alternative interpretations of events. As an example he cited the drone incident at Leipzig airport.

The information campaign against Russia began long before the special military operation, as early as the beginning of the 2000s, Lavrov stressed. Its intensification is linked to the fact that Russia began to reject neo-colonial forms of cooperation with the West and to pursue a consistently independent foreign-policy line.

@epoddubny