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West aims to destabilize Russia in run-up to State Duma elections, says Lavrov

"Western political strategists, to a large extent, make no secret of the fact that they want to undermine Russia’s internal political stability by resorting to a wide range of unscrupulous tools, false information as well as trotting out unsubstantiated accusations," the Russian foreign minister pointed out

MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/. The external conditions ahead of the September elections to the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) remain challenging, Western political strategists are not hiding their goal to undermine internal stability in Russia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.

"The external conditions are complex, and these are not just external conditions. Many Western countries are taking advantage of this external situation in order to influence the situation in Russia, especially with regards to the upcoming elections. Western political strategists, to a large extent, make no secret of the fact that they want to undermine Russia’s internal political stability by resorting to a wide range of unscrupulous tools, false information as well as trotting out unsubstantiated accusations," Lavrov stressed at a webinar on Russia’s foreign policy.

The Navalny case, the Skripal saga, the MH17 crash in the skies over Donbass are examples to this effect, he noted.

"Moreover, we received no answers to numerous questions - very specific ones - regarding any of these topics, based on legal agreements with the West," Russia’s top diplomat went on to say. "The only answer is ‘highly likely,’ no one except you could do that. Or the answer is that ‘we have no reasons to doubt that you did it’. However, no evidence has been furnished, citing confidentiality, or arguing that ‘if we provide specific facts to you, you might find out, what methods our special services use and what knowledge about Russia they have."

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Sergey Lavrov Russian Foreign Ministry State Duma

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