.....

Attempts by the West to suppress competition and protect its privileged position at any cost are the main drivers of international tensions today, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

The top Russian diplomat spoke with domestic and international reporters in Moscow to outline the work of his department over the last year, and to answer questions about issues the country’s diplomats are dealing with.

Lavrov described the source of the confrontation between the West and multiple other nations, including Russia, as a clash between the US and its allies on one side, who are attempting to force a poorly-defined “rules-based order” onto other countries, versus parties that respect the UN Charter as the foundation of the world order created following World War II.

Essentially, the West wants to suppress any nation that does not submit to its policies or is better in any sphere, Lavrov stated.

West deluding itself about new reality

The ‘collective West’ – as Russia calls the US and nations that follow Washington’s orders rather than protect their own interests – is deluding itself by hoping that its post-Cold War dominance can survive, Lavrov said.

”Any sound politician should become aware that in the past 30 to 35 years times have dramatically changed,” the diplomat argued, adding that “the opposition to the diktat of the West” has now reinstated itself in new economic powerhouses.

Fair game

Dissenting nations, including China, India, and Russia, strive for a more just multipolar world order, Lavrov said. They want a system where players can compete with each other on a level field and respect each other’s interests, he added.

The US, however, defends a system that gives it an unfair advantage and does not shy away from anything in doing so, Lavrov claimed. Washington issues sanctions “even against its own allies without the slightest hesitation, when they start thinking that someone else would produce something cheaper and be more efficient at international markets,” he added.

Washington’s methods are not unlike those of the ruling Communist Party in the USSR, which “decided everything on its own and just sent down its orders,” Lavrov asserted.

US incites terrorism

Lavrov cited deindustrialization in the EU following the economic bloc’s decoupling from Russian supplies of cheap energy as an example of the US harming its loyalists for its own benefit.

“They [the Americans] in a headlong manner gave a go-ahead to perpetrate terrorist attacks that destroy the energy wellbeing of the EU and they prod the Ukrainian clients now to take out the TurkStream as well,” the diplomat said.

Gas pipelines built to carry Russian fuel under the Baltic Sea to Germany were destroyed in September 2022 by explosions. Moscow says the US had most to win from that, since it cornered the European liquefied natural gas market thanks to it.

Investigators in the EU have failed to identify the culprit, but Western media reports have claimed that the Ukrainian military was behind the bombing. Germany’s meek acceptance of the damage to its economy was exemplified by the virtual silence of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Lavrov said.

This week, the Russian military reported a Ukrainian drone attack on a compressor station, which pumps gas under the Black Sea to Türkiye and several consumer nations in Europe.

Biden ‘slamming the door’ on his way out

Nations not aligned with the West are facing humiliation, when they try to appeal to Washington, Lavrov claimed. He cited Serbia and recent demands by the US to expel Russian capital from its energy industry.

The manner in which the US leaned on the Russian traditional ally was obnoxious, the minister said, calling it a “trademark feature” of the administration of President Joe Biden.

The outgoing Democrat seems to be trying to “slam the door” on his way out of office as hard as he can to prevent president-elect Donald Trump, a Republican, from approaching Moscow diplomatically, the Russian minister stated. Barack Obama played the same trick at the end of his second term in 2016 with expulsions of Russian diplomats and seizure of Russian diplomatic venues, he reminded the audience.

Trump’s Greenland bid

Lavrov was asked to comment on Trump’s intention to buy Greenland from Denmark, a proposal that Copenhagen has thoroughly rejected.

He said that considering the island’s autonomous status, Greenlanders feasibly have a right to self-determination under the UN Charter, as do other peoples. They would not necessarily vote for parting ways with Denmark and, if they do, they may opt for independence rather than join the US, Lavrov pointed out.

Russia “listened to the opinions of the residents of Crimea, Donbass and Novorossiya, to find out what the attitude to the regime that came to power in an unlawful coup d’etat [in Kiev in 2014] was” Lavrov said, referring to referendums in which people in formerly Ukrainian regions voted to break away from Ukraine and join Russia.

.....

https://www.rt.com/russia/610858-lavrov-press-conference-recap/

.....