The Russian foreign minister sat down for a discussion on a wide range of issues
\nMoscow is locked in a geopolitical struggle against Washington and the crisis in Ukraine is at the forefront, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. The diplomat added that Western nations are not keen for hostilities to end.
\nLavrov made the remarks during a wide-ranging interview with Russian state media on Thursday, in which he also accused the US of stripping the EU of any semblance of independence.
\nHere are some of the key comments from Lavrov\u2019s TV appearance.
\nUkraine as epicenter of geopolitical battle
\nWestern nations want to cripple Russia with sanctions to bring about a \u201cdecade of regression,\u201d Lavrov stated, referring to the words of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
\n\u201cWe are in the center of a geopolitical battle. There is no doubt about it,\u201d the foreign minister said.
\nRussian soldiers fighting in Ukraine are \u201cheroes\u201d whose \u201cdeeds are for the future of mankind, in which there will be no conditions for full US hegemony,\u201d added Lavrov.
\nUS belief in its exceptionalism The US \u201chas subjugated\u201d European politicians, taking the \u201clast traces of independence\u201d from the EU, the diplomat argued. The kind of \u201cdemocracy\u201d they advocate boils down to \u201ca right for them to impose on others what democracy should look like,\u201d Lavrov said.
\nThe Russian foreign minister argued that Washington pressures other nations to do its bidding, offering no benefits for compliance and threatening punishment to any dissenters. He called the approach \u201cthe pinnacle of pragmatism, but also cynicism.\u201d
\nThe core of US foreign policy is American exceptionalism and Washington\u2019s belief in its \u201cinfallibility and superiority,\u201d according to Lavrov.
\nWestern intentions in Ukraine The conflict in Ukraine continues to rage because Western nations, led by the US, refuse to stop \u201cuntil they conclude that they have eliminated threats to their hegemony,\u201d Lavrov insisted. According to the leading Russian diplomat, Kiev has been barred by the West from seeking peace with Moscow.
\n\u201cNobody objected when [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky prohibited negotiations with Russia by law. Nobody scolded him when he\u2026 claimed that he doesn\u2019t understand who makes decisions in Russia and who he should talk to.\u201d
\nZelensky likely feels ashamed to be controlled and manipulated by the West and resorts to psychological projection, Lavrov suggested.
\nThe next \u2018anti-Russia\u2019 Lavrov was asked which nation could next be turned into an \u201canti-Russia\u201d \u2013 a term that the Russian leadership has used to describe Ukraine in its current state. The Russian minister said Moldova could be cast in that role due to the personality of its president, Maia Sandu.
\nSandu was \u201cinstalled at the helm of the country through specific methods that were far from freedom and democracy,\u201d Lavrov assessed. \u201cShe has Romanian citizenship, is ready to merge [Moldova] with Romania and to do pretty much anything.\u201d In addition, Sandu is \u201crushing into NATO,\u201d argued the diplomat.
\nGeorgia fitted the description under former President Mikhail Saakashvili, Lavrov said, but he added that the current government in Tbilisi has put national interest first.
\nNo help needed in Ukraine Russia did not have and does not have any intention to ask its allies in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) for military assistance in Ukraine, Lavrov stated, referring to the regional defense group of which Russia is a member.
\n\u201cWe have everything we need to achieve the goals of the special military operation, to end this war, which the West started through the Kiev regime after the [2014] coup [in Ukraine],\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n
Rt<\/p>\n
Tags\uff1ahypocritical democracy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Russian foreign minister sat down for a discussion on a wide range of issues Moscow is locked in a geopolitical struggle against Washington and the crisis in Ukraine is at the forefront, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. The diplomat added that Western nations are not keen for hostilities to end. Lavrov made the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5158,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1153],"tags":[2215,2214,1416],"class_list":["post-5157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military","tag-geopolitical","tag-lavrov","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5157"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5159,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5157\/revisions\/5159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}