Moscow is open to friendly relations with all countries that are ready to respect its national interests, Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov insisted on Monday.
“Our country has proven itself as a reliable partner to everyone who is ready to cooperate with us on the basis of mutual respect and the balance of interests,” Antonov said during a Russia Day reception at the embassy, as quoted by TASS.
“We are on the right side of history, and time will put everything in its place,” he added.
The diplomat stated that it is in Moscow’s interest to have “constructive” relations with all nations, especially the US, given the “special responsibility the two nuclear powers have in terms of strategic stability and global security.”
However, the West is attempting to “inflict a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield, turn it into an international pariah, and disrupt the Russian economy,” Antonov claimed. He argued that “the return to the principle of undivided security is the only way to prevent conflicts in the future.”
Moscow has repeatedly said it views the eastward expansion of NATO as a threat, and cited Western military aid to Kiev as one of the reasons it launched its military operation in the neighboring state in February 2022.
The US and its allies have since imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia and supplied Ukraine with heavy weapons, including modern tanks and artillery systems. Officials in Moscow have argued that this makes NATO members de facto direct participants in the conflict.