MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS/. In an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov devoted about ten minutes to a historical journey to make it clear why Russia did not become part of the West.
Carlson reminded Lavrov of the ideas of a number of politicians in Washington who 20 years ago proposed bringing Russia into the Western bloc. When asked whether this was possible, the Russian top diplomat gave a negative answer.
"I don't think so. When recently President Putin was speaking at Valdai Club to political analysts and experts, he said we would never be back at the situation of early 2022. That's when he realized (for himself, apparently, not only he, but he spoke publicly about this) that all attempts to be on equal terms with the West have failed," the minister noted.
Lavrov explained that after the collapse of the USSR and the initial euphoria, Russia quickly saw that the West was not going to build equal relations with it.
"But very soon it became clear to most of the Russians that in the 1990s we were treated as - at best as junior partner, maybe not even as a partner, - but as a place where the West can organize things like it wants, striking deals with oligarchs, buying resources and assets. And then probably the Americans decided that Russia is in their pocket," Lavrov said.
According to the Russian top diplomat at the end of his presidential terms Boris Yeltsin started to contemplate that this was not something he wanted for Russia. The minister drew attention to the fact that when Vladimir Putin became president, he was very much open to cooperation with the West. This was reflected in his contacts with George Bush Jr., Barack Obama.
After the meeting of NATO in Bucharest, which was followed by NATO-Russia summit meeting in 2008, when they announced that Georgia and Ukraine will be in NATO. And then they tried to sell it to us, - Lavrov recalled, - And this is a slogan - Ukraine and Georgia will be in NATO. But this slogan became obsession for some people in Tbilisi first, when Mikhail Saakashvili lost his senses and started the war against his own people under the protection of OSCE mission with the Russian peacekeepers on the ground."
Ukrainian lesson
The Russian Foreign Minister noted that for Ukrainians, this process of perceiving the obsessive idea took longer. He recalled the situation that eventually led to the coup d'etat in Ukraine. According to him, in 2013, the West put the then authorities in Kiev before a tough choice - either you are with the West or with Russia.
"So, he [the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych] announced in November 2013 that he cannot sign the deal [about Ukraine’s association with the EU] immediately, and he asked the European Union to postpone it for until next year. That was the trigger for Maidan, which was immediately thrown up and ended by the coup. So, my point is that this either/or," Lavrov said.
But, as the Russian Foreign Minister pointed out, the West posed this dilemma to Ukraine long before the final break with Russia: the first coup d'etat occurred in 2004, when, contrary to the Ukrainian constitution, the third round of presidential elections was held.
"Well, pro-Western is not bad, basically. Pro-Eastern is also not bad. What is bad is that you tell people, either/or, either you go with me or you're my enemy," he concluded.