Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's statement and answers during a meeting with representatives of the Bangladeshi Soviet Alumni Association, Dhaka, September 8, 2023

Alumni, friends,

We appreciate your contribution to the development of our relations through the civil societies and through organisations and the governments of the two countries. This seriously helps develop relations and look for practical, useful, mutually beneficial projects. We were convinced of this when yesterday we had talks with the Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of Bangladesh A.K. Abdul Momen, with representatives of other ministries and today, when Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina received us for a rather detailed long conversation. We agreed to continue cooperation in the field of education. Your ranks will be enlarged. From this academic year we have increased the number of government scholarships for Bangladesh (by 40) to 110. In total, more than 500 Bangladeshis are studying with us now. Every year they will join the ranks of your Association. At least, we will definitely recommend them not to pass up such a public forum, which is useful in promoting our friendly relations.

I will not occupy your attention any more with my opening remarks, let’s have a back and forth.

Taxem Ahmed Han, President of the Association, graduate of Patrice Lumumba People’s Friendship University of Russia,  class of 1981:

Esteemed Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, Your Excellency, Mr. Sergey Lavrov,

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Bangladesh, Your Excellency, Mr. Alexander Mantytsky,

Our graduates, dear guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let me thank you for the fact that we, and all the graduates of Soviet and Russian universities in Bangladesh, were invited to attend this historical event, which is taking place for the first time in Bangladesh, that is, the visit of the distinguished Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation.

We sincerely thank you, Mr Lavrov, for the fact that despite your busy schedule you took the time to visit Bangladesh and gave us the opportunity to meet with you. Bangladesh and your country have been linked by close relations since 1971 during our liberation war, when the Soviet Union supported our people’s struggle for independence. We know that the USSR also helped after the war by sending a marine fleet to Chittagong. In 1972, our nation’s father, Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman paid a historical visit to the USSR, to Moscow. Many agreements were signed after that. The construction of the Gorazal and Siddhirganj TPPs and an electrical equipment plant were important events. They are still operating.

Unfortunately, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated in 1975 and could not complete his plan. His daughter, Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina now continues her father’s work.

We wanted our young people to study in the USSR. A corresponding agreement was signed. After that, every year, starting in 1972, our students went to the Soviet Union. There were 300 students every year.

In 2022, we celebrated 50 years of diplomatic relations between the Russian Federation and Bangladesh, as well as 40 years since the creation of the Association of Alumni of Soviet and Russian Universities. Our association was established in 1982. Some 5,000 former students who studied in various cities in the USSR/Russia have been working hard in Bangladesh and abroad.

Bangladesh maintains good economic and political relations with Russia. A good example is the Rooppur NPP. We believe that this will resolve our energy problems.

Now our former students, who have become specialists, work in important areas of life. There is not a single job – engineer, doctor, economist, or historian –

that does not have a graduate from Bangladesh. We are proud to study in Russia. We know that our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina appreciates the alumni of the association. They work for the benefit of their country. Now, the first graduates of Soviet universities are older and are retiring. We need to increase the number of students who study in Russia. Thank you for providing these grants.

We are proud of the doctors who are graduates of the association, there are more than 50 of them. It has been proposed that we create a Russian-Bangladeshi hospital. Maybe Russia has the opportunity to establish a Russian-Bangladesh Friendship University.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you, Mr Lavrov.

We believe that friendship between Russia and Bangladesh is strengthening.

I remember President Vladimir Putin, when speaking at the International Forum of Foreign Alumni of Russian (Soviet) Universities in Moscow, said that every graduate from their country deserves to be an ambassador of Russia. We believe that every Bangladeshi graduate is a Russian ambassador to Bangladesh.

Long live the friendship between Russia and Bangladesh!

Ashik Imran, Honorary Consul of Russia in Chittagong, businessman, architect, graduate of the Belarusian National Technical University, class of 1983:

Esteemed Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov,

Esteemed Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Bangladesh Alexander Mantytsky,

Esteemed graduates and guests present in this audience,

I am honoured to be here today and speak before Mr Lavrov, who is one of the most prominent politicians and brilliant diplomats internationally. I am a great admirer of Mr Lavrov.

Since December 1, 2019, I have been performing the duties of the Honorary Consul of Russia in the port city of Chittagong (now called Chattogram), which has special ties with Russia. Its soil is the resting place for the Russian sailor Yury Redkin, who died in the line of duty during an operation to clear the port of Chattogram in 1972. After I was appointed the Honorary Consul of Russia, at my request, the mayor of the city set aside a plot of land and funds for building a memorial in the historical centre of the city. I designed a stele to commemorate Yury Redkin, and it was built in a short time. Former Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Bangladesh Alexander Ignatov officially unveiled the memorial on February 23, 2022.

In connection with this event, the Defence Ministry of the Russian Federation awarded medals to the mayor and me for strengthening military cooperation. It is a great honour for me.

The people of Bangladesh sincerely love and support Russia. I want to emphasise that they remember the assistance provided by the Soviet Union during the war for independence in 1971. People from the younger generation are interested in Russia and often approach me with a request to open a branch of the Russia House in Chattogram.

Western media constantly spread fake information about Russia and ongoing events. The Office of the Honorary Consul of Russia distributes daily the materials that it receives from the Russian Embassy and military attaché. Materials about the special military operation in Ukraine, which we are supportive of, are widely disseminated on social media.

I would like to ask you to reconsider visa regulations for the citizens of Bangladesh so that more people, businessmen, cultural and society figures can visit Russia. This will help establish closer relations between our countries and peoples at various levels.

In the current turbulent times, when the unipolar world is collapsing, leaders and people of the majority of countries around the world look to Russia with hope. Russia is currently the architect of a new international order, a multipolar world based on mutual respect for the national interests of all countries and peoples.

I would like to thank Mr Lavrov for giving me the opportunity to deliver these brief remarks. Russia and Bangladesh are friends.

Sattar Mia, businessman, president of the Russia-Bangladesh Friendship  Society, Tashkent Polytechnic Institute, class of 1989:

I am glad to welcome you on behalf of the Russia-Bangladesh Friendship and Cooperation Society. The establishment of the Society this year has become a milestone event for Russian-Bangladeshi ties. The key mission of our organisation is to make an outstanding contribution to strengthening bilateral relations through the implementation of a number of humanitarian, cultural and educational programmes, which could prove interesting and necessary for both Russia and Bangladesh.  

Roadmaps have been drafted outlining the Society’s activity, including events, meetings, culture festivals, scientific conferences and business projects. We signed a memorandum with the Synergy corporation on the sidelines of the SPIEF 2023. This is the first university that is set to have special programmes with Bangladesh. They will train specialists for the large projects pursued by Russian companies (energy including atomic, oil and gas sector). We have begun putting this project into practice. We are completing the formation a Bangladesh commission within the Moscow Chamber of Industry and Commerce. It will be a kind of platform for holding meetings and business forums.  

Long-range plans for the Society have been compiled, including public events, meetings and scientific conferences.

The 26 board members of the Society include representatives of the Russian public, science, culture and education. Among them are a State Duma deputy, Gazprom International regional director, Rosatom vice president and Russian university professors. Russian Ambassador to Bangladesh Alexander Mantytsky consented to be an honorary member of the Society.

Heads of diplomatic missions, prominent statespersons and public figures, as well as representatives of business, cultural and academic communities took part in the inauguration ceremony for the Society in Moscow on May 15 of this year.  Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov, and Foreign Minister of Bangladesh A.K. Abdul Momen sent greetings. They emphasised that Russia and Bangladesh were long-term partners, and relations between the two countries had always developed on the principles of equality and mutual trust, and had traditionally been friendly. The Society plans to hold a similar inauguration ceremony in Dhaka later this year. I hope it will be held at a high level.  

We recognise the role of the Soviet Union in the Bengali people’s struggle for independence in 1971. The USSR was the first to recognise the new sovereign republic and rendered help in rebuilding its economy, which had been destroyed during the war of liberation. Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s visit to the USSR in 1972 was a critical moment and resulted in major agreements that laid the legislative foundation for decades to come.  

In order to perpetuate the memory of the great statesman of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, the Society’s board came up with the idea of erecting a monument to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in Moscow. This idea was supported by the Bangladeshi Prime Minister. We sent a letter addressed to you, Mr Lavrov, and got a positive response. We are now taking practical steps to implement the idea. We have sent a letter to the Moscow government. I hope that with your assistance the issue will be settled at the level of the city leaders.  

Jointly with the Russian Association for International Cooperation and the Dialogue of Cultures - United World international charity foundation we ask you to donate a bust of the world’s first space pilot Yuri Gagarin to the People’s Republic of Bangladesh so that it can be installed in the capital or one of the country’s large cities.

We pay much attention to youth projects. Our Society is pro-active in working with the Bangladeshi students enrolled in Russian universities and Russian students learning Bengali and getting to know our country’s culture.  The Board has come out with an initiative to pay scholarships to MGIMO Bengali learners. There is a consensus on that. We have sent a letter to the MGIMO head. This is a symbolic gesture.

I wanted to focus briefly on Russian-Bangladeshi trade and economic cooperation. The oil and gas, energy, and agricultural projects that are being implemented have resulted from a joint effort. We are strengthening our relationship. Gazprom International is engaged in Bangladesh not only in geological exploration but also in practical implementation of field development projects, construction of industrial plants, etc. The Soviet-implemented projects are still operative. We are modernising power stations, equipment, etc.  It is important that projects remain Russian.

I am confident that the Friendship Society’s activities will facilitate further development of mutually beneficial cooperation in various areas between our countries. Friendly ties based on the principles of people’s diplomacy will have a new lease of life.

Sergey Lavrov: We have noted all issues that were raised just now. Please use your organisation to send us the papers. It is very important to talk and communicate.  But a “bureaucratic process” is needed to take steps: letters should be sent to the city council and various Russian agencies. We will try to help you.   

Debapriya Bhattacharya, economist, researcher, Plekhanov Russian Economic University, class of 1984:

When we were students in the Soviet Union, there were graduates from more than 30 cities. Many were enrolled in Ukrainian universities. I myself learned Russian in Donetsk. What is now happening in Russia, in Ukraine…  There is no divide of this sort in our minds. We are still nostalgic for the Soviet Union.

We know the steps taken by the Russian Government in Ukraine; we know that NATO has come close to Russia’s borders; we know that security is a matter of great importance. We are aware that “third persons” are meddling in Ukraine’s internal affairs.

I have followed your career since you were Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York. I saw you at work – the subtlety, the knowledge… Today, I would like to use this opportunity and ask how the Ukraine problem can be solved, as you see it. Will it take another year or two? When will we be able to say that Russia and the world are in safety?

Sergey Lavrov: I appreciate that you have emphasised your awareness of the situation and what made us reach the end of our tether.  They left us no choice other than to ensure our security through a special military operation. At the same time, we are defending the rights of Russians, who resided and reside in the territories where their ancestors lived for centuries, where Russians brought new lands under cultivation, built cities, ports, roads, and the rest.

I will not speak about the long history that saw the accumulation of these irritants and direct threats: NATO, the elimination of the language and educational rights of Russian speakers in Ukraine, bans on Russian media and culture, persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church… They are burning books. Russian books are removed from libraries and treated like wastepaper. Hitler used to burn books, while his followers [in Ukraine] destroy them by other methods.

Today, when I talked with Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Ms Sheikh Hasina, she asked when this all might come to an end.  Many people ask this question, including what Russia is able to do. But it should be addressed to others.

Those who follow the developments may know that almost every time President of Russia Vladimir Putin speaks in public, he makes a point of stressing, in response to such appeals, that Russia is not against talks. It was not we who disrupted the signing of a peace agreement as early as April 2022, when, soon after the start of our military operation, the Ukrainians suggested that we have talks and presented to us, in Istanbul, a number of principles that could serve as a basis for signing the agreement. We accepted them. But when the agreement itself was drawn up, an agreement that was based squarely on the Ukrainian proposals and originally initialed both by us and the Ukrainians, the British and the Americans forbade its signing (although already a venue was being discussed for the presidents to meet), saying that if the Russians were ready to come to terms, this meant they were weak and could be “squeezed” for more concessions and “let’s wear them out some more.” So, all of this has continued ever since.

When they ask us whether it is possible to end this process, and whether the talks have any future, we should recall that, as far back as September 2022, Vladimir Zelensky had signed an executive order banning any talks with the Government of Russia headed by Vladimir Putin. He advanced a peace formula that the West is now calling the only foundation for a peace settlement. Apart from innocent names that aim to divert attention, such as food, energy and nuclear security, it contains what they need. In a nutshell, Russia must be pushed back to its 1991 borders and must therefore cede Russian Crimea and Donbass, it is necessary to hold the Russian leadership to account at a special tribunal, and Russia must pay reparations (as much as Ukraine requests). After that, it would be possible to sign a peace treaty. So-called serious people in the West are calling this formula the only foundation for talks. In any event, those elites that have now gained power in most Western countries, and that have no historical memory are acting in accordance with precisely these positions.

The rare reasonable voices are being drowned out. Instead of engaging in talks based on this completely unacceptable and idiotic foundation, they are demanding that a strategic defeat be inflicted on Russia on the battlefield. They are saying that it must either be defeat and capitulation (which are by definition impossible), or the problem must be resolved on the battlefield. There is no other choice. If they change their minds and realise that it is foolish to support a Nazi regime headed by drug addicts and to waste such huge sums of money, then, perhaps, we would be ready to hear them out.

Yesterday, we discussed climate change with the Minister, and we also discussed this issue at the BRICS summit in Johannesburg not so long ago. This global task concerns everyone. There are many questions: Is this situation so catastrophic or did this seasonal period already happen in the past? There is the “green transition” issue. Several years ago, the Europeans and the Americans, in the first place, moved to implement this programme post-haste. They declined to invest in oil and gas. The Germans renounced nuclear power (this is gross stupidity). They invested in and relied on wind power, water and solar power, as well as new renewable sources of energy. Later, it so turned out that they started buying less Russian gas and oil. The sun did not shine very often, the tides were weak, and the wind blew quietly. They invested in this and cut back on advanced oil and gas production projects. This is why they are facing a crisis. They are lying when they are now trying to tell everyone that the war in Ukraine has caused this.

Going back to climate issues, when we discuss the place of the Ukrainian issue in world affairs, the Africans are telling us that it is not proportional to Western propaganda and discussions. This does not fully reflect the attention they are now trying to devote to it when they are trying to force everyone to talk about this issue, as well as the influence of this situation on the solution of global problems, including the food problem. It began immediately after the Covid-19 epidemic flared up. The Americans, the Europeans and the Japanese printed trillions of paper notes and frantically purchased foodstuffs all over the world for a rainy day, in case of a serious migration problem. They quickly created food shortages. Today, they also believe that the war in Ukraine and Russia’s reluctance to extend the Black Sea grain deal is the cause of all food troubles. Needy countries, listed in the UN World Food Programme, received only three percent of what Ukraine sold during the deal’s implementation, and the EU received 50 percent. Today, everyone is demanding that we allow them to export grain. However, we are not prohibiting this. We will simply ban shipping via humanitarian corridors that were opened, and that were used to carry out attacks and to launch surface and underwater drones against Russian warships and civilian vessels. By the way, they tried to attack warships patrolling the TurkStream and Blue Stream gas pipeline routes supplying gas to Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Austria and other countries. We started patrolling this Black Sea sector. According to incoming reports, attempts will also be made to blow them up, just like the Nord Stream pipelines. No one is conducting any formal investigation. However, we are not prohibiting this. They are only saying that supranational bodies are addressing this issue. However, there is no information on this issue, either.   

Let me go back to the climate. If we compare the attention the West pays to Ukraine, on the one hand, and to its own responsibilities with regard to addressing some really important global issues, on the other, here is an example. In 2015, Paris hosted yet another climate conference during which the West (OECD countries) pledged to allocate $100 billion per year to the developing countries for investing in green technology and financing the green transition. Instead of $100 billion per year, only $13 billion has been given to all the developing countries since then. At the same time, $170 billion has been given to Ukraine over the past 1.5 years alone (one half of it for the war and the other half to help them stay afloat, have some budget and pay salaries). The injustice of this is obvious to all developing countries. It is another matter that the Americans and Europeans are blackmailing them and threatening to stop World Bank loans if someone does not abide by their rules as regards Ukraine. This is unfair. You have just identified the reasons that we mentioned repeatedly in the past. For many years, we warned the West that they were creating a threat to our security and not somewhere far away, but on our borders and territories that used to be part of the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire, territories that became part of Ukraine because it was a constituent entity of one state. Lenin handed Donbass over to Ukraine, thus “marrying” it with Western Ukraine. Donbass will never celebrate the birthdays of Stepan Bandera, Roman Shukhevich and other Nazi criminals. These birthdays are celebrated in Kiev, Lvov and other parts of Western Ukraine, which will never celebrate May 9 as Victory Day. And for Donbass and Crimea, this is a sacred date. So, a strange chimera was born. Yes, our Soviet leaders conducted experiments, thinking that by combining Russian regions with the western ones, where nationalists prevailed, they could create something not as radical as the Bandera supporters, who before, during and after the war committed a huge number of crimes against civilians, the Poles, Jews, Russians and Ukrainians. This is absolutely destructive and everyone can see that. For many years, we discussed this publicly and suggested signing treaties in 2009 and then in 2021. At the OSCE, the West at the highest level committed to the indivisibility of security, which implies that nobody should promote their security at the expense of the security of others, and that no country or group of countries or an organisation could lay claim to domination in Europe. This was signed in 2010. Since then, NATO has grown even more brazen. When we suggested that this political document, signed among others by US President Barack Obama, should be converted to a legally binding agreement, they said “no.” We told them that they had signed it. To this, they replied that it was a “political promise” (my goodness, a “promise” signed by presidents), while legal guarantees could only be obtained from NATO. Speaking on February 24, 2022, President of Russia Vladimir Putin again explained our position in detail. The Russian ambassadors received this text. They were instructed to meet with the leaders of relevant states and explain our position. This is what we did. The West denounced us publicly to the entire world. Decent people and especially democrats should have stopped at that. Russia explained its motives and the West offered its judgment. So, let us regard all others as grown-up and upright people, who have the full right to make their own decisions based on the appraisals of both parties. But they are not allowed to do so. Not only do they [the West] set out their position, they accompany this with directives on what should or should not be done.

The Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant has been mentioned, the flagship of our cooperation. The Americans tried to disrupt it by putting 69 Russian ships set aside to deliver the equipment for the project on their sanctions list. It’s a modern version of colonialism. Our Bangladeshi friends and we have found other ships that are delivering the equipment on schedule. The ceremony of bringing in the first batch of nuclear fuel has been scheduled for October. Everything is proceeding according to plan. The equipment-carrying Russian ships were also banned from entering the port of Chittagong, although, as Mr Honorary Consul has reminded us, the operation to demine the port and raise sunken ships was carried out by Russian sailors and experts.  Many of them survive to this day. You see, this is also a tough thing for sentimental people. The port and the city are linked by friendship and our struggle against the colonisers and imperialists. Today, the country, which rendered fraternal assistance, cannot send its ships for civilian purposes because the Americans have introduced sanctions. This is no democracy. Rather this is nothing short of diktat.

Our US and European partners proclaim for the whole world to hear (as, for example, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg did yesterday) that China is not an enemy to them but a challenge to their influence and values. Can they name these values? If these are what we occasionally see at parades in European capitals and if they want to inure Orthodox believers, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus to those values, then we want none of that. Let them “add” themselves and leave us alone. They are doing all this aggressively. When they talk about democracy, the Westerners mean that their system, authority and state organisation are ideal and so everyone else should take them as a model. The Americans would like their democracy to spread all over the world, and whoever disagrees with them is an autocrat or an authoritative ruler. Joe Biden convened a “summit for democracy.” What, it seems, could be more democratic than the UN, where everyone is represented and whose Charter says that the UN is based on the sovereign equality of states? But name at least one Western act since the UN’s founding that has respected the sovereign equality of states, big and small (as is written in the Charter). There are none. All their moves were made with the sole aim of deriving unilateral benefit and living at the expense of others, like in the colonial times. With their “democracy” in mind, they discuss the situation in Myanmar, or in any other country here, in Africa, or in Latin America, which they dislike. Allegedly, they want democracy to triumph there. In the years when we still talked with them, we edited documents and asked them: let’s support the progress of democracy as a whole and the rule of law. I proposed this [apply] both inside states and internationally.  But they don’t want any democracy or rule of law on the international scene because international rule of law amounts to the UN Charter, which I quote. We discussed this at the East Asia Summit in Indonesia and will continue the discussion at the G20 Summit in India today and tomorrow. They say Ukraine should be mentioned as should respect for the UN Charter and territorial integrity. It also mentions the right to self-determination, which the Bangladeshis took advantage of in the past. When all of this was enshrined in the UN Charter, along with other principles, there was a dispute between lawyers on what was more important – the right to self-determination or territorial integrity of states. The dispute morphed into talks that culminated in the UN General Assembly unanimously approving a declaration on principles of interstate relations.  It says with regard to territorial integrity vs. self-determination that everyone should respect territorial integrity of states possessed of a government representing the whole people belonging to the territory without distinction as to race, creed or colour.

If we assume that to be the case in the Ukraine situation, then after the 2014 coup which was carried out by the people who proclaimed abolishing the status of the Russian language in Ukraine as their goal, it was clear that they did not represent Crimea or Donbass which said they did not want to have anything to do with them. They have created their own republics, and a war against them began. We helped stop this war in 2015 and persuaded them to sign the Minsk agreements which confirm Ukraine’s territorial integrity provided these Donbass territories were granted special status. The right to speak the Russian language is not too much to ask, especially since respect for the rights of the Russian and other ethnic minorities is enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine (it is still there). They are performing their legislative tricks in complete violation of the Constitution. At some point, they promised that they would have their own local police, and they would be consulted when appointing prosecutors and judges to these regions. All of that needed to be coordinated in a dialogue between Kiev and these regions. The Kiev authorities refused to comply. Thus, the Kiev regime refused to implement the UN decision to the effect that territorial integrity is ensured for the governments that recognise the right to self-determination. The people in Donbass initially had their independence as the right to self-determination. They conducted a referendum after the coup, and we persuaded them to moderate their right to self-determination, to forgo independence and to agree to be part of Ukraine so as to be allowed to speak their language. This was the only condition. Ukraine violated this decision in the same way as no one can claim that the current Ukrainian regime represents all the people living in the territory that Ukraine wants back within the borders of 1991.

You can keep on talking about it, but democracy in international relations is a very uncomfortable discussion point for the West. They allegedly will tell you how to “organise democracy” at home. They demand that everyone respect the “rule-based international order.” No list of “rules” has ever been published. There is a Russian saying that can be summarised as every law has a loophole. The referendum in Crimea was vehemently rejected, even though it was conducted in strict compliance with the procedures and in the presence of international representatives, parliamentarians, and public figures from Western and other countries. Not a single credible analyst has ever claimed that it was rigged or the results were unfair.

In Kosovo, there was no referendum or hostilities. Serbia did not attack the Albanians. There was a mediator, and the situation was calm, no violence. All of a sudden, they said they were tired of negotiations and declared independence. They were recognised as an independent nation. Serbia went to the International Court of Justice in hope of finding justice. The essence of its verdict was that international law allows the unilateral declaration of independence of a part of the territory of a state even without the consent of the central authorities. This was stated as a generally accepted principle.

Referendums were held in Africa during decolonisation. The Comoros voted for independence from France, and the French said they would not let Mayotte go. The British will never let anyone have Chagos Archipelago. British Foreign Minister James Cleverly once talked about Ukraine and referendums in our new territories. He was asked if they would hold a referendum on Malvinas Islands. He said they already had. Everyone said they were a British overseas territory, and the case was closed. No one told anyone when it had been held. They just got together and made a decision. Every year, a UN General Assembly resolution calls on the UK and Argentina to resume talks. But it does not concern them.

Coups are underway in Niger and Gabon. How is the West reacting? First, they condemned them, then called for reinstating constitutional order, and then started holding talks in order to reach some compromise. But still they have not accepted the coups.

What did Washington and Europe say after the coup in Kiev? The oppositionists and the then legitimate president signed an agreement that was guaranteed by Germany, France and Poland. The next morning saw the coup unfold. We began to call these capitals with a request to calm down the putschists and to force them to fulfill what they had guaranteed. In fact, they only had to wait five months for the early elections to take place. They said no. Democracy sometimes makes inexplicable zigzags, they said.

Look at the current interest in BRICS. Six new members joined it at once. About 20 more, including Bangladesh, want a special relationship. Bangladesh has applied for observer status with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation as well. ASEAN and the SCO have their own relations. The EAEU has established such relations as well. In Eurasia, we need to take advantage of the advantages provided by nature, God, and history. We are interconnected. There is integration between different entities in the post-Soviet space, in Asia, and within the SCO and ASEAN. It is a promising process. It will create and strengthen the material basis for a multipolar world for Eurasia to become one of the centres of the global order, which the West is using every trick in the book to oppose. It wants to keep its advantages to itself.

However, the dollar has lost its credibility, as have the principles of free competition. Look how they are obstructing the World Trade Organisation’s activities in order to avoid considering fair complaints by China and other countries. The principles of the order that the West is imposing on everyone have been compromised. About 70 percent of Russia's trade with the PRC is in national currencies (rouble and yuan). It is less with India, but the share is growing as well as it is with Iran and the UAE. Saudi Arabia is paid for its oil with yuan by China. This is a blow to the dollar. This process will continue. The manipulation involving paper dollars, on which the global economy is based, will come to an end, and more reliable instruments will appear to ensure the proper functioning of the financial and other systems. We will then see what will be used to ensure the well-being of the United States and Europe, because the euro is facing approximately the same future.

This is a long period, an entire era. Just as decolonisation took more than a decade, this will need a certain amount of effort as well. I hope we will have full mutual understanding. The Non-Aligned Movement and the G77 are also squaring their shoulders. They have been kept down for many years now.

Dr Mizanur Rahman, Professor of International Law at Dhaka University, former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission of Bangladesh, Director of the Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Relations:

I consider myself a product of the Soviet Union. Please convey sincere wishes from me personally and from everyone present here to President Putin. We know that the Soviet Union gave humanity Victory Day, May 9. As students, we marked this holiday. We would like Russia to come up with a second Victory Day, this time over neo-Nazism.

Sergey Lavrov: Will do.