Lavrov Charges U.S. with Lying About Not Interfering in Russian Internal Affairs
June 29, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—In a lengthy interview with Russia’s Channel One TV “Great Game” program yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the U.S. of having lied when it said it doesn’t interfere in Moscow’s affairs. “Everyone who knows the United States’ previous record of regime change can see that such a statement certainly sounds, I would say, somewhat artificial,” Lavrov said, reported TASS. “Besides, the way U.S. foundations and non-governmental organizations had functioned in our country until just recently, several years ago, and what they were doing to support and coach the opposition, are clear indications it is obvious deceit.”
“They [Western countries] are obsessed with preventing the formation of a democratic world order, of a multipolar world order, and are clinging to any opportunity to defend their hegemony,” Lavrov continued. “Of course, they see in Ukraine, first of all, a tool to prevent the emergence of a multipolar world, in this case, by preventing Russia from getting stronger,” he said, adding that “It is clear that this plot is doomed to failure.”
Furthermore,
“It is a medical fact that they have destroyed the entire international legal system of deterrence and strategic stability. It’s a good thing they do not want a nuclear war; no one wants it. And the system of agreements, which has been destroyed by the United States, exists specifically to reduce its risk and to make this risk negligible at all,”
he said.
As for Ukraine, Russia cannot give up the goals of its special military operation. Russian President Vladimir Putin
“in the past few days has spoken at length to give an assessment of the current situation, especially stressing that, as we overcame the attempted mutiny, we haven’t made the slightest concessions with respect to the goals of the special military operation and haven’t lost any positions on the battlefield...,”
Lavrov said. “It’s impossible to give them up—the goals that have been set.”
He added that Russia cannot change its approaches to the conduct of the special operation, as long as the West is purposefully creating threats to Russia’s security, funneling lethal weapons into Ukraine, and as long as “the destruction of all things Russian in Ukraine continues to be their stated goal.”
Lavrov also indicated that there is still at least one open channel of communications with the U.S. which, on the U.S. side, runs through Jake Sullivan, mainly on matters pertaining to embassy operations in both Washington and Moscow. More broadly, Lavrov noted that he would not reject communication with his Western counterparts. There have been two requests for conversations from Blinken, one by phone, and the other on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali last November, but none otherwise.
Lavrov’s interview with Dimitri Simes on the Great Game broadcast is posted to the Foreign Ministry website, but not yet fully translated.
