International relations

According to an order signed by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, the government has decided to close the Polish consular agency in Smolensk. The Russian Foreign Ministry was instructed to notify Warsaw about this.

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko (pictured) said that Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu is «sometimes» unfairly criticized (VIDEO). According to him, the Russian minister has «done a lot» and «occupied his niche».

Following the results of the session of the G7 Foreign Ministers' meeting on Ukraine, a general statement was prepared, which states the intention of the "Big Seven" to strengthen sanctions against Russia and provide "resolute support" to Kiev. The document was published by the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

The State Duma has amended the Federal Law "On Security", which gives the President of Russia the authority to protect Russians from decisions of foreign and international structures. The initiative also proposed amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation to punish the execution of such decisions.

American intelligence does not expect the start of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in 2023, and also considers it unlikely that the conflict will end within a year under all the scenarios studied. This is reported by The Washington Post (WP) newspaper, relying on secret documents that got into social networks.

State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin (pictured) proposed to introduce criminal liability for public calls for the execution of the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and cooperation with the ICC.

Finland will join NATO on April 4. This was announced by the Secretary General of the alliance Jens Stoltenberg.

The largest investor of Iran in the last financial year, which ended this week, was Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin took part in the Congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. During the event, the head of state delivered a speech.

The authorities of Saudi Arabia and Iran signed an agreement on the resumption of diplomatic relations following the talks in Beijing. The mutual opening of embassies should take place within the next two months.

The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrel, proposed to allocate 1 billion euros for the supply of ammunition to Kiev and so much more for the purchase of shells. The head of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Alexey Reznikov said that the APU needs twice as much. This is reported by Bloomberg.

Estonian President Alar Karis refused to sign and publish a law passed by parliament on the demolition of Soviet monuments as dangerous and inciting enmity objects. He motivated his decision by the vagueness of the wording and inconsistencies with the Constitution, so the bill was returned for revision.