Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s address at a meeting with representatives of Russian non-profit organisations, Moscow, April 10, 2015

Dear colleagues,

Happy Easter!

We are here today for one of our regular meetings in this format, which has already become a good tradition, as it has proved its worth for regular exchange.

President Vladimir Putin has often mentioned the importance of partnership between the government and civil society. This fully applies to foreign relations, and actually, NGOs and expert communities can provide us with a wider perspective on many issues than that of traditional diplomacy.

Russia consistently supports a collective approach to international affairs and the promotion of an integrated, peaceful and future-oriented agenda which should serve to effectively resolve important global and regional problems based on the key principles of international law, the United Nations’ coordinating role, and respect for all nations’ rights to determine their own future without external interference. This approach we promote is fielding ever greater support around the world, as it helps promote productive cooperation on a range of projects with the majority of countries.

Unfortunately, building a genuine partnership on the international stage is hampered by the policy pursued by the US and several US-led Western countries to maintain their global dominance at any rate, to impose their will and their values on other parties to international relations. They systematically violate the underlying principles of the UN Charter and often use double standards. They have an impressive number of pressure tools to dish out to any dissenters, from unilateral sanctions to open invasion. Nevertheless, the approaches we advocate – ones that involve working collectively for a mutually acceptable solution rather than dictating to others – are gradually gaining support. We can see it in the optimistic developments around Iran’s nuclear programme, in Syria where the prevailing sentiment is slowly changing with everyone beginning to understand the need to forge a national dialogue and to allow the Syrians themselves to determine their country’s future. I am confident that this approach will eventually prevail in Ukraine, where the February 12 Minsk agreements are being implemented with difficulty at this stage, always encountering attempts at sinking the process. Yet, the majority of nations support the comprehensive and consistent fulfillment of the Minsk package.

Speaking of Ukraine, I would like to note that the destructive line that has been taken with regard to developments there, the introduction of illegitimate sanctions against Russia, and the attempts to punish our country for upholding truth and justice and for advocating for the defence of its compatriots have caused a serious crisis in our relations with the West. We are facing a large-scale information war. Unprecedented efforts are being made to distort the image of our country and its policies. In this connection, efforts to objectively inform the public, to strengthen contacts with those aspiring to constructive cooperation, including within the framework of the Normandy Four, are becoming particularly important.

Civil society is playing an increasingly greater role in this respect. In this connection, I would like to mention materials prepared by the Democracy Issues Research Foundation together with the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation that have been submitted here today. They provide graphic evidence of war crimes perpetrated by Ukrainian ultranationalists as well as an insight into the Crimea-Russia reunification process which has been repeatedly discussed, including by Russian President Vladimir Putin. But attempts are still being made by some to impose their own conception and theory of regional developments. This topic will continue to be discussed in the media for a long time. We hope that you will also focus on it.

The Eurasian Economic Union started functioning on January 1, 2015, and it is hard to overestimate its significance as a means of strengthening regional stability and making member-countries more competitive. The process of Kyrgyzstan’s accession to the Eurasian Economic Union has entered its final stage. I believe that Russian NGOs can make a useful contribution to supporting unifying trends in the post-Soviet space and to covering the broad-based discussions underway on the topic of Eurasian integration, which is an important factor in creating a common economic and cultural space from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This idea is also making headway. At first, it was rejected by our Western partners, and now it is being welcomed, particularly by leading EU countries. Importantly, this fact was reflected in the documents adopted in Minsk on February 12, 2015.

The Foreign Ministry is actively cooperating with NGOs across the UN’s areas of activity. In the year marking the 70^th anniversary of the UN, we will continue including representatives of local NGOs as experts of the Russian delegation at the UN General Assembly session. It is in our best interest to have Russian NGOs effectively contribute to the work of the Russian delegation in the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the Human Rights Council and other UN bodies and agencies.

A UN summit will be held in New York on September 25-27 as part of the 70^th session of the General Assembly which will be used to approve the global development agenda for the post-2015 period. Intensive work is underway to prepare decisions related to the most pressing problems in global social and economic development for this summit. NGOs are involved in this work. I think that participation of Russian NGOs will lend them added authority and lead to more balanced decisions.

We plan to continue to provide support to domestic non-profit organisations as they try to obtain consultative status at ECOSOC. Last year, five NGOs obtained such status, and it was decided to give this status to two more Russian organisations in January. Following the approval of the decision at the ECOSOC meeting in April, the number of Russian organisations with consultative status at the Council will total 61. However, this is still a modest figure, as about 3,500 NGOs have consultative relations with the United Nations. Therefore, we urge the NGOs that are interested in promoting their international activities to actively use this channel to expand their external relations.

Building a stable architecture of the 21^st century can be achieved only through recognition of the cultural and civilisational diversity of the modern world, and through a constructive dialogue between major religions and civilisations with absolute respect for national identity. We are convinced that international relations cannot ignore the traditional values ​​that are basically shared by all the world's major religions. Especially so, considering the fact that the religious factor has become important in international activities not only in theoretical discussions, but in practical processes as well. We support the involvement of the Russian non-governmental sector in work under the auspices of the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations, the seventh Global Forum of which will take place in Baku in 2016. We are interested in seeing meaningful representation at the upcoming event, reflecting the diversity of Russian civil society.

Russia’s active involvement in multilateral projects such as BRICS and SCO, whose summits will be held in July in Ufa, serves the goal of achieving sustainable global development.

Russia’s BRICS presidency is focused on the most effective use of the group’s capabilities for strengthening global peace and security, making BRICS an important element of the global governance system and turning inter-group cooperation into a comprehensive partnership. To strengthen the socio-political foundation of the BRICS countries, Russia as the group’s rotating president plans to hold various events this year such as the BRICS Civic Forum and the BRICS Youth Summit. We invite you to actively contribute to the preparations for these events.

Unfortunately, the current unfavourable tenor of our relations with the EU has had a negative effect on public diplomacy. In December last year, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) adopted an obviously politicised opinion on civil society in Russia. In effect, it states that “due to the political situation,” the EESC no longer considers the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation (CCRF) as a full-scale partner. The reason for this was the CCRF’s position on the Ukraine crisis. Regrettably, the fact that our foreign policy is supported by the overwhelming majority of Russian citizens has been completely disregarded.

However, we believe that despite a considerable decline in Russian-EU relations, interaction between our civil societies should continue.

Despite the current chill in our relations, we continue to promote border cooperation and interregional cooperation between Russia and the EU countries.

Of course, cooperation and ties with our European and other partners are only possible on the basis of equality and respect for each other’s interests.

Against the background of the complicated situation in the Euro-Atlantic region, we believe the growing role of the OSCE provides a platform for meaningful work to overcome the deficit of trust and mutual understanding, erase old dividing lines and prevent new ones. The Helsinki +40 process enables civil society representatives to participate in bringing the OSCE activities in line with the 21^st century challenges and threats. We hope that you will also contribute to these efforts.

We appreciate the work of Russian NGO representatives within the framework of the annual OSCE Warsaw Review Conference on member countries’ implementation of their human rights commitments. The last review conference took place on October 22-November 3, 2014. Thanks largely to the broad participation of domestic NGOs (more than 50 were represented) and their active stance, it became possible to provide objective information about the human rights situation in Russia and draw attention to numerous problems in a whole number of other countries, including those that position themselves as model democracies.

I have repeatedly said that no one is perfect. It is necessary to promote a mutually respectful discussion of concerns as they arise – that’s the only possible way of allaying them. Attempts to build a dialogue based on the “pupil – teacher” model have absolutely no prospects. We count on your continued contribution to various international human rights forums. We are interested in having NGOs from the Republic of Crimea play a more active role in this work. Then our partners will receive more objective, up-to-date, first-hand information about the situation on the peninsula, which is blatantly distorted in the Western media and in the positions of Western countries, which they present at various international events.