US Does not Care about Ukraine, Wants to Prove It Is Still in Charge: Lavrov
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Washington's approach to the events in Ukraine is not fueled by concerns about the fate of the crisis-torn state, rather by the desire to prove it is still running the show worldwide, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
The way the situation in Ukraine is reported in mainstream media indicates that “unfortunately, the information machine of our western colleagues is working at full capacity,” Lavrov said following talks with his Chilean counterpart, Heraldo Munoz, in Santiago.
The US is trying to shape public opinion in a specific manner “because they are not concerned by the fate of Ukraine in the first place, but have strong desire to prove that it’s them who decides how things should be – always and everywhere,” Lavrov stated.
The foreign minister stressed that sanctions imposed on Russia by the US and its allies are the result of such a stance, and will have a costly outcome for Washington in the long run, RT reported.
However, Moscow currently has no plans to retaliate against the “meaningless” sanctions from the West, he said.
“At this stage, we want to give our partners a chance to calm down,” Lavrov said. “We’ll see what happens next. If absolutely baseless notations towards Russia will continue, if there are attempts to pressure us with economic leverage, then we may reevaluate the situation.”
Lavrov has advised the US to “discipline those whom they brought to power in Ukraine” instead of sanctioning Moscow.
He stated that despite declaring themselves “winners of the democratic revolution,” the current government in Kiev is based “on a coalition which includes candid radicals and extremists, condemned even by the EU back in 2012 when the Svoboda party first made it to parliament.”