“Violent protests the way the West loves to do it.” 4 fakes by Sergei Lavrov from a lecture to students

1. About the incident with a British destroyer off the coast of Crimea

“Russia will not make excuses to the West as a guilty schoolboy and will not allow talking to itself from a position of strength. This was announced today by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking to the students of the Far Eastern University. The foreign minister cited a recent incident off the coast of Crimea as an example:

“When a British naval ship invaded our territorial waters, some liberal critics of the government began to say: why did they have to expel it, if it would have passed by Crimea, what would have happened? That is, to swallow? Swallow a direct insult, spit on the will of the Crimean people ”.

It seems that it has become a common practice – to ignore the choice of the peoples of those countries that are recorded in the West as “undemocratic” ”.

The so-called “invasion” of the British destroyer Defender into the territorial waters near the coast of Crimea – even if we consider them Russian, although from the point of view of Great Britain and all other members of the UN, except for Russia, these are the territorial waters of Ukraine – there was neither an insult nor a disregard for the “will of the Crimeans” (recall, not recognized by the international community, since the 2014 “referendum” was held under the conditions of the occupation of Crimea by the Russian military). Anyway, Defender did not do anything that would allow not to consider his actions as a peaceful passage.

Article 12 of the Russian law No. 155-FZ “On internal sea waters, the territorial sea and the contiguous zone of the Russian Federation” said:

“one. Foreign ships, foreign warships and other state ships enjoy the right of innocent passage through the territorial sea in accordance with this Federal Law, the generally recognized principles and norms of international law and international treaties of the Russian Federation.

2. In the interests of ensuring the security of the Russian Federation, as well as for the purpose of conducting exercises with weapons of any kind, the federal executive body for defense or the federal executive body for security may temporarily suspend in certain areas of the territorial sea the exercise of the right of innocent passage through the territorial sea for foreign ships , foreign warships and other government ships. Such suspension shall take effect after it has been announced in advance in the Notices to Mariners ”.

And article 11 decrypts innocent passage concept:

“one. Passage through the territorial sea is peaceful, unless it violates the peace, good order or security of the Russian Federation.

2. The passage through the territorial sea of ​​a foreign ship, foreign warship or other state ship is considered to violate the peace, good order or security of the Russian Federation, if the said ship carries out any of the following activities in the territorial sea:

the threat or use of force against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or independence of the Russian Federation or in any other way in violation of the principles of international law embodied in the Charter of the United Nations;

any maneuvers or exercises with weapons of any kind;

any act aimed at collecting information to the detriment of the defense or security of the Russian Federation;

any act of propaganda aimed at encroaching on the defense or security of the Russian Federation;

ascent into the air, landing or taking on board any aircraft;

lifting into the air, landing or taking on board any military device;

loading or unloading any goods or currency, embarking or disembarking any person contrary to border, customs, tax (fiscal), sanitary, immigration, veterinary, phytosanitary, navigation and other rules established by the laws of the Russian Federation and other regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation;

any act of deliberate and serious pollution of the environment contrary to the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation and the norms of international law;

any activity in the field of fishing and conservation of aquatic biological resources;

conducting research or hydrographic activities;

any act aimed at interfering with the functioning of any communication systems or any other structures or installations of the Russian Federation;

any other activity not directly related to the passage through the territorial sea, unless otherwise provided by international treaties of the Russian Federation. “

There have been no reports of any Defender activity covered by this article. The existence of a notice to mariners about the suspension of navigation in the area of ​​Cape Fiolent is also the case. And nowhere in the law does it say that permission must be sought from the Russian authorities for innocent passage.

2. About future protests

“We can assume that on the eve of the upcoming elections to the State Duma there will be new attempts to undermine, destabilize the situation, provoke protests, preferably violent, as the West likes to do. Well, and, probably, then a campaign will be launched to not recognize our elections – there are such plans, we know about them. But we will be guided, first of all, by the opinion, the position of our people, who are themselves able to assess the actions of the authorities and express their opinion on how they want to develop their country themselves. “

There are no examples of violent protests in Russia, which, according to Lavrov, the West loves so much, in the story of Channel One. And no wonder: in order to somehow substantiate the minister’s statement, one would have to recall the criminal cases under Article 212 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on mass riots in connection with the events of May 6, 2021 on Manezhnaya Square, when the most dangerous of the violent actions of the protesters turned out to be the damage to the tooth enamel of a police officer. Or the “Moscow case” of 2019, when a criminal case was opened due to a paper cup thrown into a policeman. There were no more serious “violent protests” in Russia.

3. On the international isolation of Russia

“The foreign minister said that there is no international isolation of Russia. Among the main partners, he named South Korea, with which we have 25 large investment projects; emphasized the special partnership with India, but about China he said that bilateral relations are at the highest point in history. “

Whether Russia is internationally isolated can be judged by the volume of foreign direct investment. In 2020, it fell to $ 1.4 billion, which is about 40 times lower than the “pre-Crimean” level of 2013.