MOSCOW, June 04 /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine’s developments have marked a climax of the West's course taken against Russia many years ago, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a meeting with the Russian International Affairs Council on Wednesday.
‘The situation in the world is difficult and volatile and today we can hardly draw any conclusions aspiring to be final,” the minister said. “The crisis in Ukraine has jolted the international situation and its impact will reverberate for a rather long period of time.”
“Political analysts have been trying to attach colorful clichés to it [Ukraine’s crisis] dubbing it either the new Cold War or the most intense crisis over the past 30 years but I think the essence of the events matters much more here than labels,” Lavrov said.
“The events in Ukraine have marked the climax of the course taken by the West towards Russia many years ago but have not displayed principally new tendencies,” he said. “In fact, a centuries-long habit to treat the Russians as aliens has dogged Western Europe despite the fact that we have been an unalienable part of European culture and politics for at least the last three centuries. Moreover, the times, when Russia most actively participated in the European affairs shared by everyone, were characterised as stable and safe on the continent.”
“We would like not to plunge into the reflections why we are unable to seek real partnership in Europe,” he said adding that “it is evident that divergences of world views, historical experiences and traditions as well as our country’s vast territory have played their part."