Russia Says Post Cold War ‘Illusions’ About the West Are Over

FM Lavrov says Russia has given up on ever relying on the West

In the face of a US-led campaign to isolate Russia from the global financial system, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday that Moscow has lost any post-Cold War “illusions” it ever had about the West being a reliable partner.

“If there was any illusion that we can one day rely on our Western partners, this illusion is no longer there,” Lavrov said. “We will now have to rely only on ourselves and on our allies who stay with us.”

The Russian diplomat added that there are other countries that also don’t wish to be pushed around by the US, such as China, India, and Brazil. “What the Americans want is a unipolar world which would not be like a global village but like an American village — or maybe like a saloon where you know the strongest calls the shots,” he said.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, there were hopes that the US and its allies could have good relations with Russia, but Lavrov said the door is now closing. “We are not closing the door on the West — they are doing so,” he said.

A major factor in the deterioration of US-Russia relations over the decades was NATO’s eastward expansion after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. While no formal treaties were signed, the US did promise during negotiations at the end of the Cold War that NATO would not expand beyond the Elbe River in Germany.

The West’s isolation of Russia has done nothing to stop the fighting in Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin must have factored the sanctions into his decision to invade. Russia’s economy is taking a serious hit, but as Lavrov said, Moscow is prepared to be more self-reliant and expand trade relations with China and other countries not following the US pressure campaign.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.