MOSCOW, January 21. /TASS/. Russia is ready to defend its legitimate security interests, but there are no grounds to take its actions as an attempt to form some kind of exclusive zone of influence, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement released on Friday in response to media questions received at the press conference of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
"Russia, like the United States and other countries, has legitimate interests, in particular in the field of security," the ministry noted.
"Like any state, we cannot fail to react to the emergence of external challenges and threats, especially military and military-technical ones. We are doing this strictly within the framework of international law. There are really no grounds to interpret our actions as the formation of some kind of exclusive sphere of influence for Russia," the ministry stressed.
The Foreign Ministry drew attention to the fact that Western colleagues while speaking about the unacceptability of spheres of influence in modern conditions, offer many examples of double standards.
"Several years ago, then head of the EU diplomacy Federica Mogherini said that Western Balkans is a region where the EU would deal with all the problems and it would be better for others not to participate in it. Of course, she primarily meant Russia and China. What was that, if not an attempt to arbitrary establish a sphere of influence?" the document says.
The Foreign Ministry also recalled the statement by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell who said that the European Union should not let Russia and China take control of the situation in Afghanistan after the pull out of the NATO coalition from that country and his words that it is better for Russia not to work in Africa at all, because this territory allegedly belongs to the European Union.
"One can also recall how the French at all levels, like a mantra, raise the issue of the Russian presence in Mali, stating in a neo-colonial manner that this is a "red line" for France," the Russian Foreign Ministry says.
Most recently, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called on the authorities of Kazakhstan to explain "on what basis" the legitimate government of this country turned to the CSTO with a request to assist in restoring order and repelling the terrorist threat.
Moreover, the Western expert-political environment got into a tantrum after the simple refusal of Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov to give an unambiguous answer to the question about Russia's possible "military-political plans" in relation to Cuba and Venezuela.
"Isn’t this evidence of arrogant thinking in the spirit: "we can do everything, and Russia can do nothing," the Foreign Ministry notes.
"All this suggests that it is the collective West, and not Russia, that divides the world into "spheres of influence" and "backyards." Let us remind you that after the departure of the Soviet Union from the historical arena, American leaders began to build a "new world order," which, in fact, meant the expansion of the US zone of influence throughout the world. This policy resulted in war and chaos, hundreds of thousands dead, destroyed states, millions of refugees, geopolitical tensions that persist to this day," the ministry concluded.