MOSCOW, September 8. /TASS/. The West wanted to weaken and dismember Russia in order to get its hands on its wealth, but it miscalculated, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the online project "Sama Menshova."

"No matter who points out that then-US President George H.W. Bush tried to dissuade Ukraine from leaving the Soviet Union, the West was still strategically interested in that outcome. It has always been interested in weakening our country--be it the Russian Empire or the USSR. Just as it is currently interested in weakening, or even dismembering, Russia to get its hands on our wealth. We can now see that the West miscalculated," the Russian top diplomat noted.

During the interview Lavrov also commented on a quote from the Soviet movie Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears, where a character, when asked what was happening in the world, replied: "There is no stability." The foreign policy chief shared how popular this phrase is in the corridors of the Foreign Ministry. "I don't hear it when I walk through the corridors. In the film, Aleksey Batalov’s character asks that question after spending a week 'cut off from the news.' We cannot afford such a luxury these days. The answer 'there is no stability' holds true for all times. However, that part of the film was set in the late 1970s. Compared to that period, there is far less stability now," he emphasized.

"Back then, there was a Cold War with elements of detente. Everyone understood who was responsible for what and what they were entitled to. That rigid bipolar world order was accepted by all. Now, we are experiencing the consequences of the USSR's collapse," Lavrov concluded.