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.
Who loves ya baby? The Vlad will triumph! David over Goliath. If we survive this one people will look back on it as World War Woke, when so much childish hysteria in the global press tried to obscure the true state of the conflict.
I appreciate and respect that you phrased your statement the way in which you did… That’s a pretty big “if”…
The US had better watch out how it steps. You can be the cock of the walk, one moment and a pile of nuclear dust in the next…
Historians will look back on America’s squandering of our post-Cold War win and shake their head: A genuine friendship with Russia? It might have been.
Joe, the fellow I voted for, could have forestalled the Ukraine suffering by being a peacemaker last December. He could have sat down with Putin and Zelenski, hammered out an agreement. But no, he fed and fed Ukraine with weapons, talked bad, did the opposite. Lavrov is right. Led by the us, there was no way Russia, from 1991 hence, was going to be accepted. NO way. The number of countries that have come out for the destruction of Russia is breathtaking and is rank with hypocrisy. When we lied about WMD, committed “shock and awe” which killed thousands, killed hundreds of thousands in the ensuing years in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, et al, nothing. No sanctions. No refusing to trade. No freezing of assets. Nothing. Yes. It might have been.
Russia wanted to sit at the “cool kids” lunch table, but realizes now that’s not to be. The weird thing is that Russian leaders themselves seemed to not realize for a long time that our leaders did not want/need them as a friend, we preferred them as an enemy.
Russia,,”I will call your bluff, all in'”,,,NeoCon, DC Ghoul,,”Oh SHI#” !!!
The end of Fail Safe………..screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
The US hegemony decline has started with its withdrawal from Afghanistan…. Now, with Ukraine is it gaining speedy pace…!
The sanctions are good for Russia, if they force Russia to move toward industry instead of supplying raw materials to the West. The sanctions can do the job of tariff protections, sheltering Russian industry as it emerges.
This is something Russia ought to have done decades ago. Oligarchs controlling captive production of raw materials prevented needed moves to diversify.
Russia has everything it needs to prosper without the West, and is held back the same way Britain held back the new US before Jefferson’s Embargo stimulated new American industry.
US Senate is on payrole of her all powerful Deep state corporate masters that own the country!
“Illusions, by their very nature are sweet”….
Oh, as Lavrov spoke, he stabbed a voodoo doll of Biden with stick pins… And sipped his Chinese tea…
This is depressing.