MOSCOW, May 31. /TASS/. Responsible politicians, including Western politicians, will not allow a new world war, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda website published on Tuesday.
"There will be no world war, and the president [Russian President Vladimir Putin] said this in the film by Vladimir Solovyev," Lavrov said. "I am confident that responsible politicians, from the West as well, will not allow this because people still remember the horrors of the First and Second World Wars. Russia sustained the biggest losses during the war in Europe, China sustained the biggest losses in the war in the Pacific against Japanese militarism," he noted stressing that "politicians cannot allow this."
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"Of course, we cannot rely on others. First of all, we should think about how ready we are to prevent a new war from being started," Lavrov said. "Such attempts are made in what concerns building up military potentials beyond reasonable capacity and in violation of international agreements," he added.
Russia calls against military buildup
According to the diplomat, Moscow calls against arms buildup if this comes without enough reasons and in violation of international agreements.
The Russian minister reminded that in 2001 the United States announced that it withdraws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. US former President George Bush told Vladimir Putin then not to worry as this was not directed against Russia, but Moscow could take any steps in response.
Some "nervous neighbors in Eastern Europe" should remember about this when Russia calmly warns that it will take response steps if NATO’s military infrastructure approaches its borders. "They forget about this and accuse Russia of everything," Lavrov stressed.