The US is wary of burning down relations with Russia “to the ground,” but it is not yet ready to respect Moscow’s interests, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has told RIA Novosti.
In an interview published on Sunday, the minister commented on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent statement that Moscow is ready to restore “full-fledged relations” with the US if it starts respecting other countries and seeking compromise instead of “addressing their problems using sanctions and military force.”
Russian-American relations have been strained to the breaking point because of Washington, which has “doctrinally formalized the task of inflicting a ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia,” Lavrov said. He noted that while the White House is cautious not to completely ruin “what is left of relations” with Moscow, the US is “clearly not ready” to conduct a dialogue “on the basis of mutual respect and consideration of each other’s interests.”
Peaceful coexistence between Russia and the US can be achieved only if Washington recognizes Moscow’s “fundamental national interests,” but the US ruling elite “denies the realities of a multipolar world and still think in terms of their own superiority and exclusivity,” Lavrov said.
For Moscow, it does not matter who wins the 2024 US presidential election because the political establishment in Washington “sees Russia as an enemy and an existential threat,” regardless of party affiliation, he added.
Since Crimea voted in a referendum to become part of Russia in response to the Maidan coup in Kiev in 2014, the US has been the main enforcer of sanctions on Moscow, imposing more than 4,500 restrictions, according to Castellum.AI.
On Thursday, the Financial Times reported that the US had asked G7 members to “explore ways to seize $300 bn in frozen Russian assets” and channel them to Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow has a list of US, European, and other assets to seize in retaliation, and that these measures have been analyzed “in advance.” He stressed that Russia “will do everything” to ensure that they suit its own interests.
Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said on Saturday that the US was also complicit in arranging Ukraine’s attack on the Russian city of Belgorod, which killed 24 civilians earlier in the day. “We know that British and American consultants were directly involved in the organization of this terrorist act,” he said at an emergency UN Security Council meeting.