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 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.
Here are some of the key comments from Lavrov’s TV appearance.
Ukraine as epicenter of geopolitical battle
Western nations want to cripple Russia with sanctions to bring about a “decade of regression,” Lavrov stated, referring to the words of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
“We are in the center of a geopolitical battle. There is no doubt about it,” the foreign minister said.
Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine are “heroes” whose “deeds are for the future of mankind, in which there will be no conditions for full US hegemony,” added Lavrov.
US belief in its exceptionalism The US “has subjugated” European politicians, taking the “last traces of independence” from the EU, the diplomat argued. The kind of “democracy” they advocate boils down to “a right for them to impose on others what democracy should look like,” Lavrov said.
The 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 “the pinnacle of pragmatism, but also cynicism.”
The core of US foreign policy is American exceptionalism and Washington’s belief in its “infallibility and superiority,” according to Lavrov.
Western intentions in Ukraine The conflict in Ukraine continues to rage because Western nations, led by the US, refuse to stop “until they conclude that they have eliminated threats to their hegemony,” Lavrov insisted. According to the leading Russian diplomat, Kiev has been barred by the West from seeking peace with Moscow.
“Nobody objected when [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky prohibited negotiations with Russia by law. Nobody scolded him when he… claimed that he doesn’t understand who makes decisions in Russia and who he should talk to.”
Zelensky likely feels ashamed to be controlled and manipulated by the West and resorts to psychological projection, Lavrov suggested.
The next ‘anti-Russia’ Lavrov was asked which nation could next be turned into an “anti-Russia” – 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.