⚡Reception on the occasion of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly 🗓 On 22 September 2026, the Permanent Mission of Russia to the EU and Euratom hosted a reception on the occasion of the opening of the High-Level Week of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, which is traditionally one of the key events of the year in global politics. The reception brought together ambassadors and senior diplomats accredited to the EU from around 50 countries of the World Majority, as well as representatives of international and regional organisations and the media. In his welcoming remarks, Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of the Russian Mission to the EU and Euratom Karen Malayan underlined that Russia attaches paramount importance to preserving and strengthening the central role of the United Nations in international affairs and is fully aware of its responsibility for the Organisation’s future. He reaffirmed Russia’s intention to continue working with like-minded partners in BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and other regional organisations to enhance the quality and effectiveness of the work of the United Nations. 💬 Karen Malayan noted that the emergence of a multipolar world is facing resistance from those accustomed to thinking in colonial terms, unwilling to accept the changing reality and seeking to do everything they can to hold back their rising competitors, including by means of illegitimate sanctions, economic coercion, blackmail, interference in the internal affairs and legal aggression. Нead of the Russian Mission expressed confidence that discriminatory practices and unilateral coercive measures are futile. He recalled that, in January-February 2024, the International Court of Justice rejected Ukraine’s allegations against Russia concerning “financing terrorism” and “racial discrimination” in Crimea, as well as alleged violations of the Genocide Convention, while in June 2026, the international arbitration court established under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, in its final ruling, upheld Russia’s position, including by rejecting alleged violations of Ukraine’s rights in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, as well as Ukraine’s cynical demand for the destruction of the Crimean Bridge. Karen Malayan emphasised that protecting international law from unscrupulous politicisation is in the interests of all sovereign States. 🖼 During the reception, a photo exhibition entitled “Crimean Gold: ‘Civilised’ Europe Plunders Russian Treasures” was displayed at the Permanent Mission. It was dedicated to the history of the theft of unique artefacts, discovered during archaeological excavations in Crimea and kept in the Crimean museums ever since. Following the decision of the peninsula to reunify with Russia in 2014, the cultural treasures were unlawfully appropriated by the Kiev regime with the assistance of the Allard Pierson Museum of the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Despite the agreement with the Crimean museums, as well as their joint lawsuit with the demand to return the collection, the Dutch side did not give back the collection, which had been displayed in Amsterdam on a temporary basis, to its rightful owners. Instead, in 2023, it handed it over to Kiev, becoming complicit in the theft of the “Scythian gold”. 🎥 The guests also had the opportunity to watch the documentary “Kostroma Ballet. A Family Affair” by RT Doc that tells the story of the Russian National Ballet “Kostroma”, which has earned wide recognition both in Russia and abroad.