Briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova, Moscow, January 31, 2018

31 January 201820:09

Briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova, Moscow, January 31, 2018

141-31-01-2018

•   

• en-GB1  es-ES1  ru-RU1  fr-FR1 

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s speech at the final stage of the Leaders of Russia contest

On February 7 in Sochi, Sergey Lavrov will address the participants of the Russian Leaders national management contest organised pursuant to the President’s instructions by the Graduate School of Public Administration under the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA).

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s speech and answers to media questions will be available on the Foreign Ministry web site and official accounts in social media.

Events for Diplomat’s Day

On February 10, the Russian diplomatic service will mark its professional holiday for the 16^th time. This year, February 10 falls on Saturday, so most events will take place in the run-up to this day.

Festive events will be held at all Russian foreign missions and the Foreign Ministry headquarters. Our embassies, consulates general and permanent missions with international organisations will also publish corresponding materials.

On February 8, flowers will be laid at burial places of prominent diplomats at Novodevichy Cemetery: former foreign ministers and ambassadors of the USSR and Russia.

Representatives of the Foreign Ministry administration, veterans and employees of the Ministry and young diplomats will take part in the traditional annual ceremony.

As part of the festivities for Diplomat’s Day, flowers will also be laid at memorial plaques in the Foreign Ministry building. There are also plans to pay tribute to the memories of Foreign Ministry employees who perished during World War II or in the line of duty, or who fell victim to political repression.

There will also be an exhibition, which this year is dedicated to the establishment of the national diplomatic service after the October Revolution of 1917. The display of documents will encompass the activities of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs before the USSR was formed in 1922.

A traditional official meeting will take place on the occasion of Diplomat’s Day.

I would like to add that at 11 am on February 8, as part of events for Diplomat’s Day, a memorial plaque will be unveiled at the Russian Embassy in Abkhazia in memory of our colleagues Dmitry and Olga Vishernev, who died in the line of duty in September 2013.

We invite the media to all the events held at the Foreign Ministry. 

Council of Young Diplomats holds gala event on Diplomat’s Day

At 7 pm on February 8, the Foreign Ministry’s Council of Young Diplomats will hold an informal meeting with the young employees of the Moscow diplomatic corps at the Foreign Ministry’s GLAVUPDK (5 Ulofa Palme Street).

The programme includes the presentation of the activities of the Council of Young Diplomats, a review of the first Global Forum of Young Diplomats that was held in Sochi in October 2017 on the sidelines of the World Festival of Youth and Students, a discussion of the plans for the second Global Forum in 2018 and the establishment of an international association of young diplomats and a Moscow diplomatic club.

 We invite all journalists to attend the event. For accreditation call the Council of Young Diplomats until 3 pm on February 7 at +7 (916) 487 43 54.

18^th Winter Diplomatic Games

On February 10, Diplomat’s Day, the Moscow Country Club, an affiliate of GLAVUPDK, will host the 18^th Winter Diplomatic Games.

The event will be attended by heads and employees of diplomatic missions accredited in Russia, officials from the Russian Foreign Ministry and GLAVUPDK, as well as by famous Russian athletes and cultural figures.

During the event a news conference will be held with the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Belgium Jean-Arthur Regibeau, and First Deputy Chair of the Committee on International Affairs of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, Olympic champion Svetlana Zhurova.

I would like to explain why the news conference will be held with the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Belgium in Moscow. The Moscow Country Club will receive the team and representatives of the Belgian delegation that will arrive for the 2018 FIFA World Club.

The referee’s board will include celebrated Russian athletes: Olympic skating champion Lyudmila Titova, Olympic bobsled champion Vladimir Kozlov and biathlete Alexander Yelizarov, to name a few.

The games will consist of competitions of about 40 teams of diplomatic missions in six sports.

The games will be crowned by a gala hockey match between the winner of the hockey tournament and the team KomAr that will include Oleg Butman, Alexander Mostovoy, Sergey Krestovsky, Kirill Andreyev, Pavel Trubiner, Vladislav Karpovich and other Russian stars of sport and culture.

By tradition, Moscow Country Club guests will be offered an interesting cultural programme and a Russian food tasting session. We invite Russian and foreign journalists to take part in the coverage of the event.

For more information and accreditation procedures go to the GLAVUPDK website.

Events at Foreign Missions section on the Foreign Ministry official website

I would like to point out that the Foreign Ministry website (we will talk about this in detail today) has an Events at Foreign Missions section. By request of our embassies, we will find a special more convenient link, maybe even on the home page, to make it easier to find. This section has been providing information and photographic materials on the activities and events of our foreign missions regularly for several years now. A large number of materials are published daily, and even more materials will be dedicated to Diplomat’s Day. You can find information there as well. 

We will certainly have a special section on the website which will be dedicated to our professional day.

To be continued...