Maria Zakharova: on elections, BRICS and IAEA

The briefing discussed a wide range of issues on the international agenda, to which Russia and the work of its diplomatic missions are related. However, before that, the diplomat summed up the results of the presidential elections held in the country from the point of view of the work of the Foreign Ministry and the international reaction to this event.

According to Zakharova, countries unfriendly to Russia launched a whole campaign to complicate the organization of work on voting in presidential elections abroad. Despite this, the Russian Foreign Ministry brilliantly coped with the task - at all 288 polling stations subordinate to the ministry abroad, voting took place normally. All voters and members of the commissions were provided with security, and provocations of anti-Russian forces were stopped.

In addition, the diplomats themselves presented detailed information on the voting process.

Russian diplomats are embittered because they work well - they showed the real picture of the elections in peak of what the mainstream media painted, "said Maria Zakharova.

The first question of The Moscow Post concerned a recent interview with the President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation and the Chairman of the Russian part of the BRICS Business Council Sergei Katyrin. In the context of his speech, the journalist asked about the prospects for Argentina's membership in the BRICS, which since 2024 officially includes ten states.

Recall that earlier Argentina expressed a desire to join the BRICS, but after the change of head of state, these plans were revised. As Maria Zakharova explained, the new president of the country, Javier Miley, after taking office sent a notice to each of the BRICS members to revise the decision to join the organization. If at some point Buenos Aires revises this decision and again decides to join the BRICS, the country's application will be considered.

The second question concerned the security situation at the Zaporizhzhya NPP. Recently, the Russian Foreign Ministry made a statement in connection with the second anniversary of the return of the ZPP to Russian jurisdiction. And among other things, the other day the head of the IAEA Rafael Grossi visited Russia. The latter called the situation with nuclear and physical safety at the ZPP precarious.

The Foreign Ministry statement noted that the task of the IAEA is to prevent threats from the Kyiv regime. Does this mean that Grossi maintains a dialogue with the Kyiv regime, and if so, why then the security situation remains tense.

Answering this question, Maria Vladimirovna noted that the line of combat contact is not so far from the ZNPP. In this regard, the assessment of the head of the IAEA Grossi about safety problems is quite adequate - it cannot be characterized as completely satisfactory.

At the same time, she called the presence of experts from the IAEA secretariat at the station one of the factors in stopping direct rocket and artillery attacks. However, it will be possible to fully guarantee security only after Russia solves the tasks of demilitarization and denazification of the territory controlled by Kyiv.