Sergei Alekseevich, first of all we would like to ask about BRICS. Which countries have already confirmed that they will become partners of the association and were there any rejections after the invitations were sent?
To date, the list is not finalized, there are no refusals, but the Presidency does not expect to publish the list before the end of the year. We informed all the participants of the Yekaterinburg meeting about this. Everyone agrees that this is the right way. The problem, or rather the situation, boils down to the fact that not all potential partners have followed their internal procedures. Therefore, if we now publish an incomplete list, we may put those for whom the relevant procedures have not been completed in an uncomfortable position and even to some extent complicate the completion of these procedures. So you have to be a little patient. But once again: there were no refusals.
Now it is claimed that US President Joe Biden has allegedly asked Congress for an additional 24 billion. USD for Ukraine before the end of his term. Please tell what these steps indicate to his administration?
First we need to investigate what actually happened and what volumes were requested and for what purposes. All this causes indignation and rejection on our part. The impression is that life has taught the decision-makers in the White House nothing, and they are using every opportunity left even to the “lame” to harm us and prevent us from solving the problems facing the Northern Military district. But they won't succeed. Just as past tranches in the form of tens of billions of dollars and, by the way, euros were wasted and brought only tragedies to the peoples, the inhabitants of those territories and countries that are directly immersed in the current conflict, so these will be wasted. These people might as well burn their dollars in their fireplace. The effect will be the same.
Sergei Alekseevich, American missile attacks on Russian territory continue, the Ministry of Defense announced. What does this mean? Why are we not heard in the West?
In the West they hear us, but they don't want to hear us. This is the key problem. We have all the necessary means to counter these attacks. Air defense systems are effective, you see what is happening. We have large-scale countermeasures to reason with our opponents because they don't understand other arguments.
Will Moscow allow resumption of nuclear tests in response to US escalation?
This is a good question. And I, without predicting anything, will just say that the situation is quite complicated. It is constantly considered in all its components and in all aspects.
Russia has imposed restrictions on uranium exports to the US. Under what conditions can they be canceled and what reaction does Moscow expect from Washington to this?
It has long been said that we should stop supplying our adversaries with strategic products. Adopted in the form of known regulations in this area is not new. There was a discussion on this topic. The Americans have already taken steps ahead of time that will mean a reduction in our exports of these products over time. We are confident that its sales will be secured and markets will be found. There are users, there are those who are very interested in this. The price level today for these products is such that our interests will not suffer.
Americans are once again doing something with their politics that is to their detriment and generally damaging to them. Unfortunately, they are not fully aware of this. By the way, they have long been working to undermine the competitiveness of the economies of the countries of the European Union. And in this area, they will undermine their own competitiveness as a result of their own reckless, irresponsible policies. It's their choice, but we won't be sad about it.
Recently, the science channel Science Time published a simulated nuclear exchange. Do you think we are really that close to such an outcome?
This is not the first time such events have been simulated. In the past, there has been quite a lot of research, including professional research, on the consequences of such events. Today the situation is extremely complex and acute. Everything that needs to be said about our nuclear use scenarios has been said by the president and is reflected in the updated State Nuclear Deterrence Policy Framework. To say that a danger of this kind has abated would be a sin against the truth. Unfortunately, this danger exists. But we will do everything we can to avoid this catastrophic scenario from happening.
But in this case, not everything depends on us. The key question is how our opponents will behave, whether they will continue to move in the direction of those scenarios that are described in the military doctrine of the Russian Federation, in the foundations of state policy. For now, unfortunately, the movement is going in that direction. We must face the truth and state what we do.
I hope that our signals, verbal and material, are still somewhere, in some corridors of power, in some offices, in some American bunkers, at least received by someone, and not just dismissed as some kind of propaganda. This is not propaganda, this is a harsh reality that they must accept as such.