Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is accusing the United States and NATO of using blackmail and threats “to maintain their global domination.”
Lavrov made the comments in an op-ed published Friday in the Russian magazine Razvedchik (Intelligence Officer), arguing that “a new multipolar world order” is taking place to the West’s chagrin.
“A strategic goal of the systemic deterrence of China has been formulated, including as part of the so-called Indo-Pacific strategies,” Lavrov wrote. “The malicious practice of interfering in the internal affairs of states, including the fraternal state of Belarus, has not stopped. The years-long trade and economic blockade of Cuba has not been lifted….Overall, nobody is safe now from the United States and its satellites’ raiding and mobster-style attacks.”
Lavrov has made innumerable comments about the US and the West since Russia initiated its “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. In December, he called the situation a “war” for the first time, which was out of tune with how the Kremlin has characterized it.
Last month, he blamed “American exceptionalism” and the United States’ supposed perception of infallibility and superiority for leading to “a proxy war” against Russia.
In December, he told Russia’s Channel One that the war was “orchestrated” by the US and backed by the European Union dating to what he referred to as a coup d’etat in 2014. That was the year Russia annexed Crimea and the Maidan Revolution occurred, leading to the unseating of pro-Kremlin President Viktor Yanukovych.
Lavrov, who was appointed to his current position by President Vladimir Putin in 2004, was laughed this month in New Delhi by some G20 nations when he suggested during a panel discussion that the Russians are attempting to stop the war that was launched against them.
US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said at the time that “I think it is clear from the reaction in that room the fact that the world is under no illusion about how this started, about who is responsible” and that Russia has the ability to conclude it.
“It is obvious that the situation in and around Ukraine is only an element of a large-scale collision created by a small group of Western states that wanted to maintain their global domination and to turn back the objective process of the rise of a multipolar architecture ,” Lavrov wrote in Razvedchik.
“Acting in the worst colonial traditions, the Americans and their lapdogs are trying to divide the world into ‘democracies’ and ‘authoritarian regimes’ or, in plain English, into the select few who are exceptional, and everyone else who must serve the interests of the ‘golden billion.'”
Russian expert Dmitry Gorenburg of the Center for Naval Analyzes told Newsweek that he doesn’t put much stock into such statements by Lavrov, who admits that he has discussed international relations on multiple occasions.
“Undoubtedly there’s pressure from the US on various countries to abide by sanctions, and of course Russian officials have been talking for over a decade about the US having a regime-change strategy,” Gorenburg said.
“It’s not quite bluster [but] more an expression of the threat they perceive coming from the US against their own regime, as well as others that are not in the US’ good graces.”
Newsweek reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry via email for comment.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is accusing the United States and NATO of using blackmail and threats “to maintain their global domination.”
