MOSCOW, September 7. /TASS/. The West is doing everything possible to try to spoil Russia’s upcoming State Duma elections, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated at a meeting with students and faculty of the MGIMO University.
He also noted that Russia’s position in the world and its potential influence depend on the outcome of the special military operation.
TASS has summed up the top diplomat’s key statements.
Russia’s position in the world
Russia’s position in the world and its potential influence depend on the results of the special military operation: "The situation on the frontlines has and will continue to have the most significant and decisive impact on how the world perceives us, on the prospects for our influence, and on the consolidation of our position in the world."
Russia is not prepared to enter into agreements that fail to ensure a balance of interests: "Without pragmatism and a balance of interests, we will not enter into any agreements."
"In short, this is a situation that requires us to remain calm and focused on creating reliable mechanisms for conducting trade, economic, and investment activities in such a way that none of our opponents, let alone those who call us enemies, would have any opportunity whatsoever to hinder us in any way."
There has been no shift to the East: "The process of diversifying Russian energy exports to Asian markets has been in full swing for several years now. However, there has been no shift toward the East. At least since the early 2000s, our two-headed eagle has been looking and continues to look both left and right, toward the West and toward the East."
What Russia thinks of West's unfriendly policy
Western countries are openly robbing Russia of its assets and its so-called "shadow fleet": "Theft is done quietly, while robbery, as you know, is committed openly. So, the West is now engaging in robbery - both when it comes to assets and the so-called shadow fleet."
Russia can never trust the West again: "There will never be any trust in the West, which has lied to us before and continues to lie to us now. Our attempt to finally give these Western colleagues a chance has finally convinced us that we are now on the only right path."
"We are always open to cooperation with those who are ready for that on the basis of equality, mutual advantages, and the balance of interests. The overwhelming majority of countries of the global South and the global East are ready for that. The West doesn’t want them to. Western envoys are touring capitals, saying, ‘No-no-no, you should not do this with Russia.’"
The American side is seeking to discourage Russia’s closest partners from maintaining ties with Moscow: "We know that the Americans are doing this: they are discouraging our close partners from keeping relations with us. But they are no longer doing this for ideological reasons, they are doing this simply because they do not want our partners to economically benefit Russia in any way. They want to redirect those benefits to themselves."
Russia has no intention of bartering its resources with the West "for beads": "We didn’t refuse from the dollar, we were denied access to it. Did they really expect us to sit there exchanging what we need for beads? No, that will not happen. The Americans, as well as Europe and Japan, they are deliberately destroying the model of globalization that they have shaped."
"In the current situation, Europe is committing harakiri, while proudly trumpeting that it must suffer."
European leaders are trimming social allowances and are calling on their voters "to put up with hardships because Ukraine is allegedly fighting for European values": "By European values, they apparently mean Nazism, reburials of Nazi criminals, the ban of the Russian language, education, culture, mass media, and the ban of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church."
Such relations with Western countries as Russia had before February 2022 will never exist again: "Never say never, but my forecast for the lifetime of all generations present here is that it is so; such relations will never exist again."
West’s attempts to spoil elections in Russia
The West is doing everything possible to try to spoil Russia’s upcoming elections to the State Duma, or lower house of parliament: "One of the main events of this year, and of the entire five-year period, is the upcoming State Duma elections. The West is doing everything possible to try to spoil this event. They are trying to invent as many pretexts as possible that can then be used to question the fairness of the elections and the sincerity of the people's will."
This is also being felt within the country, "where all sorts of personalities are also becoming more active, trying to help the West": "This includes terrorists who are being hired to weaken our position in the interests of the Ukrainian Nazi regime."
Western countries are seeking to consolidate those who left Russia into a sort of a political force, but that's not working: "Today, we hear a lot of analysis on our political channels, on television on how they are trying to make some kind of political movements out of our, as they put it in Belarus, our ‘fugitives, those who have ‘relocated.’ Such attempts look miserable, but the work continues: some funds are being allocated, and certain international organizations are being used - allegedly of environmental or of some other, unknown nature."
Russian "representatives abroad are actively participating in the election campaign, and polling stations are opening" for voting: "Polling stations are opening where our citizens who are abroad, either on permanent jobs or business trips, can participate in the elections. We are opening polling stations in 152 countries. There are as many as 326 such polling stations, including 61 in countries with unfriendly governments."
These figures are "practically comparable to what we saw in previous elections - both five years ago and the latest presidential election": "However, the number of polling stations in the West has been reduced by more than 60 due to the closure of our consulates."
The number of polling stations in the West has decreased due to staffing problems: "We perceive this as a situation where you can't force someone to be nice. There are many proverbs that explain this situation and suggest what needs to be done. In general, we have never wanted to be liked. We simply wanted to negotiate fairly. They don't know how to negotiate fairly."
Conflict in Ukraine
The Ukrainian conflict needs to be ended in a way so as to stamp out Nazism in Europe once and for all: "This is our key mission as a foreign ministry - to ensure a maximally effective diplomatic and political support for the special military operation, to explain its root causes, to explain our stance, which could have long made it possible to end this war on fair conditions and which was laid bare by the president back in 2024. To end it so that there will be no more Nazism in Europe, which has once again metastacized here."
"I think that it would be a betrayal of those who defeated Nazism back in 1945 to allow a regime that reburies the remains of Nazi criminal with honors, kneeling before them, to remain in power, and I don’t mean to be stilted. This is simply something that cannot be part of our genetic code."
Germany’s decision to close Russian consulate general in Bonn
Germany’s decision to shut down Russia’s consulate general in Bonn is appalling: "The latest example is the Germans’ despicable decision to close our consulate in Bonn under a completely baseless, ridiculous, far-fetched pretext."