MOSCOW, January 17. /TASS/. The West is pumping up hysteria around Russia’s alleged plans of aggression against Ukraine simply to keep this topic afloat on the international agenda and not let it fade away, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the OSCE Alexander Lukashevich said on Monday.
"All this hysteria [around Russia’s alleged plans of aggression against Ukraine] is an attempt to keep the Ukrainian topic high on the international agenda and not let it fade away, or lose its political and geopolitical implications," he explained.
According to Lukashevich, there is another, economic, motive behind this hysteria. "The West keeps on looking for [reasons for] newer and newer sanctions and the topic of Ukraine acts quite well for these illegitimate actions," he noted, adding that Russia is aware of "these attempts at economic pressure and counts on its own strength" to stand up to them.
Recently, Western and Ukrainian media outlets have been echoing claims about Russia’s possible aggression against Ukraine. Peskov earlier slammed such statements as "empty and groundless" and their goal is to whip up tensions. He stressed that Russia doesn’t pose any threat to anyone, but did not rule out possible provocations to justify the remarks in question and warned that attempts at using force to settle the crisis in southeastern Ukraine would have the most serious consequences. He also pledged that Moscow is committed to the Normandy format and the Minsk deal and spares no effort to help Kiev settle the conflict in Donbass.