MOSCOW, June 04./ITAR-TASS/. Russia is not going to build anti-western constructions and get involved in senseless confrontations only for the sake of providing us and NATO with desirable enemy image, Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said. 

The policy of limiting Russia’s capabilities is conducted mostly not by European powers, but by the United States, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a meeting of Russia’s council for international affairs.

“The oddest thing is that all this is happening contrary to the obvious and objective benefit the pooling of technologies, resources and human capital might yield for both parts of the European continent,” Lavrov said.

In his opinion this contradiction stems from the fact that the policy of restricting Russia’s capabilities is led not by the European powers but in the first place by the United States.”

An idea to make the historic West a stronghold managing the world economy appears to be a very dangerous illusion, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov added.

“In any event, a concept of turning the historic West into a stronghold for managing the world economy and performing the functions of a global police officer is a dangerous illusion,” he said. “It is dangerous because attempts to put it into practice could undermine the world stability rather than the possibility of this idea becoming reality, as in the modern interdependent world it’s unreal to build certain oases of well-being and security fenced off from the outer world.

“Many analysts in Russia, the European Union and in the United States have been stressing the fact that the Americans are out to prevent the unification of potentials of Russia and the United States, in the first place, guided by the tasks of preserving their own global leadership,” Lavrov said. “Immanuel Wallerstein wrote just recently about the nightmare of the Paris-Berlin-Moscow axis nightmare that keeps haunting Washington politicians.”

Russia is not going to “swallow” another wave of offensive against its national interests, Sergei Lavrov emphasized.

“In recent days, it has become particularly clear that a choice has been made in favor of intensifying actions designed to “discard” Russia. 

“They had made their choice long before the Ukrainian crisis broke out: suffice it to remember such landmarks in unwinding the anti-Russian spiral as ‘the Magnitsky Act’ and accusations of our support for Iran and later Syria. The very fact of preparations for the Sochi Olympics has become a pretext for spurring up anti-Russian propaganda in proportions that have nothing to do with sober sense or elementary decency,” the Russian foreign minister went on to say.

“Ukraine has become a frontier beyond which “compressing a spring” further is no longer possible. We have warned our Western colleagues many times that it is impossible to sway the fragile internal political situation in Ukraine and warned about the extremely serious consequences of creating a seat of instability in Europe. Nevertheless, they grossly interfered in the internal affairs in Ukraine; they orchestrated and supported an anti-constitutional coup with the help of ultra-nationalist and neo-Nazi forces,” Lavrov stressed.

There is a widely spread believe that these considerations largely determined the United States’ initiative on creating a trans-Atlantic trading and investment partnership.

“Cutting ropes and shutting lids is no good in relations between Russia and the West for us and for them,” Lavrov said. “However, it is clear that there can be no return to the previous model of relations, filled with double standards and insincere towards Russia.”

Lavrov expressed the hope that the current crisis will serve as a sort of refreshing thunderstorm that would make it possible, although not instantly, to shift relations with the western partners to a more sound and honest basis.”

“Possibly, there will be less painful discussions about the search for common values and more recognition of each other’s right to be different, more striving for building relations on the solid basis of equality and mutual respect for each other’s interests,” Lavrov said.

 

Russia will continue efforts for restoring peace in Ukraine

Russia is ready to take part in the joint efforts for contributing to Ukraine to overcoming the crisis, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said.

“Russia warned that under no circumstances it would passively watch the operation for changing the regime in the neighbouring country and for attacking Russians, their language, history, culture and their legal rights in compliance with European conventions,” Lavrov said at a session of the Russian International Affairs Council on Wednesday.

“We supported the agreement of February 21 although we considered it not ideal. We took part in working out the Geneva agreement of April 17 and the OSCE ‘roadmap’,” he said.

“The documents contain major principles for restoring peace in Ukraine: de-escalation and an inclusive dialogue to meet the interests of all regions,” Lavrov said.

“We call on foreign sponsors of new Kiev authorities to use their authority for stopping the punitive operation in Ukraine’s south-east,” he said.