Moscow Calling – May 30

Russian Spies Chastise Serbia

Enterprises of the Serbian military industry continue to supply ammunition to Kiev, contrary to Belgrade’s declared neutrality in Russia’s conflict with Ukraine. This was stated by the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) of the Russian Federation. “The Serbian military industry is trying to shoot Russia in the back. According to information received by the SVR, Serbian defense enterprises, contrary to the neutrality declared by the official Belgrade, continue to supply ammunition to Kiev,” a message from the SVR reads. For these purposes, “false end-user and intermediary country certificates” are involving, according to SVR. the Czech Republic, Poland, and Bulgaria. Russian spies also quipped about “recently [discovered], exotic variants involving African states.” (EADaily)

Moscow Calling is Civil.ge’s monitoring of the Russian state media. We are putting our 24 years of experience at the service of our readers who look beyond Georgia’s immediate stories.

Kremlin’s UN Envoy: Zelensky is trying to deceive Trump

Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, accused Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky of trying to deceive Donald Trump and push him back to “anti-Russian and Russophobic positions.” “The plans of Zelensky and his associates, as they call it, are sewn with white threads. Their task is to deceive and disorient American President Trump, who is taking decisive steps toward peace, to try at any cost to return his country, which has already wasted hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine, to anti-Russian and Russophobic positions,” Nebenzya told the UN Security Council. (ria.ru)

Nuke Ukraine?! Maybe not, a Russian political scientist muses

Russian political scientist Yevgeny Minchenko mused on Sputnik Radio that there is no sense in nuclear strikes on Ukraine: “If we were to hit, it would be better to hit the NATO countries, but to bomb, for example, London or Germany or Poland is a very big risk. How will our partners in the Global South feel about it? How will China and India feel about it? In general, there are a lot of questions.” (Sputnik Radio)

Moscow Writer Akunin of justifying Ukraine’s “terrorist activities”

Russian writer Boris Akunin (born Grigory Chkhartishvili) advocates the violent change of the constitutional order of the Russian Federation and justifies the “terrorist activity” of Ukraine, at least if we believe what the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, a prosecutorial investigative body, says. The Investigative Committee says it forwarded the criminal case against him to court. Akunin, an author most known for his detective stories glorifying imperial – but European – Russia, is listed as a “foreign agent” in Russia. He was found guilty twice by the Russian courts for “violating the procedure for the activities of a foreign agent” and was put on an international wanted list. (TASS)

Zakharova claims Kyiv is “hysterical”

As usual, Kyiv is “hysterical” ahead of the second round of talks in Istanbul, trying to get a better deal, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. “Under this noise, they want to bargain for something for themselves again, to draw attention to themselves again, to make a good price for themselves again, although each and every time what they get is new bumps on their heads,” argued Zakharova with her inimitable eloquence. The Ukrainian side insists that Moscow should not delay presenting its memorandum on the peace agreement. Still, Russia is in no hurry to hand over the document to Ukraine and will apparently present it directly at the upcoming meeting. (ria.ru)

Kremlin Plays for Time on Putin’s direct talks with Zelensky and Trump

According to Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s direct talks with Zelensky and Trump are possible only after “results are achieved” in the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations. “Putin has repeatedly said that he is fundamentally in favor of high-level contacts, of course, they are needed, but they must be prepared, and first, a result must be achieved at direct talks between the delegations of the two countries. If such a result is achieved, and when it is achieved, then, of course, we can talk about high-level contacts,” Peskov said. (TASS)