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Coronavirus pandemic

US using pandemic to impose its vision of world order — Russian top diplomat

Sergey Lavrov noted that the US increases pressure on the countries who lead an independent foreign policy as well as criticizes the World Health Organization

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Sergei Savostyanov/TASS

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

© Sergei Savostyanov/TASS

MOSCOW, May 13. /TASS/. The US and its allies do not abandon their attempts to use the COVID-19 pandemic to promote their vision of world order and to escalate confrontation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday.

"We have to state that even in the conditions of a pandemic, our American colleagues and their allies do not abandon their attempts to escalate confrontation, to use the current situation to impose their point of view, their vision of world order, which they call an order based on rules. As you know, they invent the rules themselves," Lavrov said.

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He noted that the US increases pressure on the countries who lead an independent foreign policy as well as criticizes the World Health Organization (WHO). "We hear baseless accusations against the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation. The calls to suspend unilateral sanctions for the period of the fight against the coronavirus, sanctions that hinder humanitarian deliveries of medicine, equipment and goods, are being ignored," the minister explained.

Lavrov pointed out that the coronavirus pandemic raises the question of the future of the international relations system, which has been put to test. The spread of the infection poses a challenge not only for separate states, but for international organizations like the SCO. The minister stressed that Russia continues to call for collective solutions that reflect the interests of every state.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 4,355,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 293,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 1,610,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.

To date, a total of 242,271 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 48,003 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 2,212 fatalities nationwide.

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