A week before one year has elapsed since the invasion launched by Moscow to return to dominate Ukraine as in the times of the USSR, the Russian Foreign Minister proclaimed on Wednesday that Russia wants to put an end to what he describes as a Western “monopoly” over “global affairs”. Sergei Lavrov assured that the future must be decided not according to “selfish interests” but in a fair “universal balance”, where Moscow has a lot to say. Lavrov denounced that the West is trying to contain Russia and that it wants to take it “back decades”.
Russian state media already reported last week that President Vladimir Putin is preparing to approve a new foreign policy. And it seems that it will be tougher with the West, now that relations are almost broken. Russia is sanctioned as never before in history, blocked in the banking and commercial aspect, and isolated in terms of transport. It has also lost its access to the European energy market, which was its best customer.
For years Europe has been careful not to put Russia in a position where it no longer has almost nothing to lose on the Continent; and that is the Russia of 2023. “In recent years, the course of Washington and its European satellites has reached a point of no return,” lamented Lavrov in his appearance before the Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament, although he recalled that Russia “never had allies in the West.”
“We were prepared for this when the Cold War ended, when the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact disappeared. [But] we proposed to come together and make the OSCE a truly collective Euro-Atlantic security structure. It didn’t work,” the Russian foreign minister reviewed.
As an alternative to the western axis, Lavrov proposes the Russian-Chinese alliance. “Together with our Chinese friends, we are working to strengthen the bilateral strategic partnership, which has reached an unprecedented high level in history.” Lavrov boasted that Russia also has stronger ties with Brazil, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and other friendly states on every continent, including Latin America.
In reality, Lavrov slammed a door that was already closed, because even the negotiations on Ukraine, the main geopolitical issue today, are in the drawer. Russia saw tourist inflows drop by more than 96% last year following the invasion of Ukraine and international sanctions imposed on Moscow. Before the deputies, many of whom have lost their European vacation paradise, Lavrov said that the blame for all this is “the decision to stop direct flights” to Russia.
Moscow is seeking a substitute for the Western tourist and plans to introduce visa-free travel for citizens of up to 11 states, as well as ease entry requirements for those of six others, including India and Indonesia.
The Kremlin has often accused Western countries, led by the “Anglo-Saxons” US and UK, of trying to dominate world politics and meddling in each other’s affairs, while trying to suppress emerging powers in Asia, Latin America and Africa.
Last week Lavrov returned to Moscow from a tour of several African countries to strengthen Russia’s positions on the continent. Even the military, where Wagner’s mercenaries are his advance guard. The trip was harshly criticized by the French media.
Lavrov denounced that France considers Africa as its “backyard” and, at the same time, accuses Moscow of carrying out a neocolonialist policy on that continent.
Lavrov’s African adventure led him last week to even enter the Saharawi conflict, taking advantage of the Spanish change of position. Lavrov regretted that the Group of Friends of Western Sahara (of which Spain is a part) has put its activity on “pause” and recommended “removing the deadlock” from the negotiations on the Western Sahara conflict and promoting a settlement based on the resolutions of the UN Security Council.
For Moscow, not only Western countries are contaminated by the US, but also multilateral institutions. That is why it will review its obligations with international organizations. In fact, it has decided to withhold payments in those cases in which it believes that Russia’s rights are violated.
An announced slam will be in the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), in whose convention, according to the minister, “illegitimate mechanisms” have been introduced. Due to the invasion of Ukraine, Russia already left the Council of Europe in March 2022 just before they kicked it out. Last month the Russian president referred to the Duma a draft law on the cessation of compliance with 21 agreements between Russia and the Council of Europe.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
