Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with CBS News that if former President Trump is elected, Washington’s attitude toward the situation in Ukraine will not change.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during the interview that the breakdown in relations between Moscow and Washington began under George W. Bush:
“I don’t believe there is any difference, because there is a tendency towards the destruction of Russian-US relations, their foundations, including all agreements on strategic stability, equality, mutual trust, inspections, transparency and so on. This whole structure began to collapse under President George W. Bush.”
The minister stressed that the first step of the United States to destroy relations with Russian Federation was the withdrawal of the United States from the agreement on intercontinental ballistic missiles. He noted:
“The sense of superiority and impunity is deepening. Those who ignored the good intentions shown by Putin during his first two terms, who miscalculated, are the ones who need to reflect on the situation. Instead, we see that the current generation of US politicians has not learned a single lesson from the unacceptable US policy pursued after the collapse of the USSR.”
Lavrov said then that the United States was mystifying Russia’s readiness for dialogue to end the conflict in Ukraine. The Russian diplomatic chief accused US Secretary of State Antony Blinken of lying about Russia’s alleged unwillingness to engage in dialogue last week when the minister spoke at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos.
According to Lavrov, the United States did not want to discuss Russia’s demands even before the conflict. He added:
“We had no opportunity to discuss any of this with the president Trump or with anyone else in the United States.”
The minister stressed that “the current US presidential administration is not interested in any form of dialogue, except occasionally on issues related to their needs, funds and activities of the embassies in Washington and Moscow and the mission in New York, but nothing related to political issues.”
Lavrov stressed that Russia would be ready to talk to anyone who wanted to engage in dialogue without neglecting Russia’s national interests and “the West’s policy of using Ukraine as an instrument of war against Russia.”
