https://mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/1799343/
Question: Western media and politicians continue to whip up tensions over the alleged Russian “invasion” of Ukraine, although it seems fewer and fewer people trust their statements as time goes by. This has become a bad joke even in the UK and the United States. Why do they go on with this? What do they want to achieve?
Sergey Lavrov: I am sure that even people who are halfway interested in international politics have become convinced that this is only propaganda, fake news and lies. The main thing is for those who invent these fakes to believe in them. They like it. If they do, they can continue. Why not, indeed?
This is ridiculous. Grown-up people make “forecasts” and repeat their incantations every day. The Politico magazine has postponed the “invasion” date several times. Their latest forecast is February 20. At the same time, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has been saying that the invasion may begin at any moment over the course of many months. They are trying to set the scene for the future. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that Russia will “invade” Ukraine in a matter of weeks, if not days. We know that the State Department has warned its NATO allies confidentially that the “invasion” can be expected to begin before the end of February. However, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (no matter what you may think of his activities) has said they have no information indicating that an invasion is imminent. According to the Foreign Office, “it’s important that [they] prepare for any eventuality,” and “even if Russia pulls back from the Ukrainian border, the problem will not have gone away.” They are creating pretexts for the future. When the drills end, the troops will return to their barracks. It is already taking place, as they can see. But they are setting the tune for the future: even if Russia moves its troops back to their permanent bases, the threat will remain. … there is a saying that real men do what they say, at the very least, at the international level.
In the meantime, they are increasing their military and military-technical presence and building up their military infrastructure. The UK has said that it will double the number of troops in Estonia and will send equipment, including tanks and armoured fighting vehicles there. US Permanent Representative to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield has provided an example of “refined diplomacy” when she told the media that Russia is “prepared for an attack any day.” “We’ve seen them do it when they invaded other parts of Eastern Europe,” she said. Well, they are giving us no slack.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the leaders of other NATO countries say that NATO is a defensive alliance. President Vladimir Putin reminded Mr Scholz during a news conference following the talks that NATO bombed Yugoslavia in 1999. The Chancellor replied that this was done to prevent a genocide of Kosovo Albanians, and that everything went well, and the region is prospering now. But it is not prospering at all. Kosovo and several other parts of the Western Balkans have become a breeding ground for crime, with terrorists and drug traffickers. Mercenaries are recruited there to fight in the conflicts that are being covertly fomented, including by the United States. According to available information, mercenaries are being recruited in Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, including for deployment to Donbass in an attempt to knock Russia off balance. We are currently checking this information.
The situation Olaf Scholz described with regard to Yugoslavia had nothing to do with genocide. International courts have not passed this verdict. We know who created a pretext for the bombing of Yugoslavia: US national William Walker, who headed the OSCE’s Kosovo Verification Mission. There were armed clashes, and he convened journalists to tell them in a televised statement that they had discovered the bodies of 30 civilians in Racak who had been massacred by the Serbs. He described it as genocide and took a unilateral decision, which he had no right to do, to withdraw the mission from Kosovo. This is what triggered the bombing. They said that the atrocity in Racak was the last straw and that they would cut short the activities of the criminal regime.
Later a special group was assigned to investigate the incident. It established that the dead were not civilians but militants who were dressed in civilian clothes after they had been killed in battle. The holes in their clothes did not align with the wounds. Yes, the case was investigated very thoroughly. So, saying that NATO’s invasion of Yugoslavia had a noble purpose is wrong and unethical.
The statement made by William Walker played the same role as Secretary of State Colin Powell’s vial with tooth powder, which provided an excuse to invade Iraq and destroy it. So far, neither democracy nor economy is flourishing there. Everyone knows this.
Our NATO colleagues will not be able to avoid a discussion about how we are going to implement the obligations we have signed up for. They cannot have a selective interpretation of the concept that has been approved at the top level and stipulates that all the components of indivisible security are interconnected.We are in correspondence with our American colleagues. We have responded to their reply to our December initiatives. We have not made much progress on the issues of principle. We will continue to uphold a comprehensive approach. It is impossible to make lasting agreements on matters of secondary importance without coordinating the political concept of our interaction.
Question: It has been reported that you plan to meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Is this so? Do you expect to make progress?
Sergey Lavrov: Secretary Blinken and I have agreed that he would be ready to meet with me after Russia sent its document and they analysed our vision of the situation. Both of us are interested in this. It meets our interests and plans.
As I have said, we want to explain to our American colleagues and their NATO allies that we will not be satisfied with verbal promises, especially since the written obligations by the heads of state and government regarding NATO’s full respect for Russia’s interests (let alone the oral guarantees which President Vladimir Putin has mentioned on numerous occasions) turned out to be worthless. This won’t do.
We will press on for a fair solution. I don’t want to use slang, but there is a saying that real men do what they say, at the very least, at the international level.
Oh boy, did Lavrov just tell Blinken that he has no ‘goolies’? Looks that way to me.
Remember Lavrov saying before that when he talks to Blinken about the security issues, Blinken actually understands and he knows, but he just shrugs his shoulders, i.e., he has no honor. Oh dear heavens, Lavrov is going to emasculate Blinken in a manner of speaking.
Oh oh, the psychological pain dial.
Henny Penny cries wolf that the sky is falling!
Western “leaders” never learned from Aesop or their own folk tales.
Such is the quality of their intellects, education and character. There is no mystery. It all follows from that.
Please stop calling them “colleagues”.
Can I suggest you take your cue from finance and call them “counterparties”.
It is transactional. There is no relationship.
I like VVP/LAVROV/SHOIGU….but calling Western politicians colleagues/partners..is not right..I know they can not call them publicly vultures…..stalhl.. counterparties is much better..did VVP /LAVROV think -partners /colleagues will irritate them…????
Due the the vagaries of orthography I thought the word you wrote was ‘counterpanties’ which kind of fits in with the lack of cohones as well as the seeming gender bending proclivities.
I do think the term “coleagues” is apt because for the moment at least, the US has the mandate of heaven. This will most likely change with time.
it’s been my impression that whenever putin, lavrov, all those in the FM, sogui speak to an issue they do so as they in a court of law. russia has been preparing it’s war crimes tribunal for a long time. they are never sloppy, careless or fail to underline & sharpen the point of each engagement, encounter & presentation. so far it is looking tight, america’s, the eu’s slipshod @ best.
Many people on this site have this blind faith in Putin’s decision making. I see the Russian leadership as weak and indecisive. In 2015 Russia didn’t end the suffering in Donbass because of the fear of economic sanctions. Eight years later, Russia will be sanctioned anyway. Russia said there would be a response if her security demands were rejected. Instead of the promised military technical measures all we hear from Russia is endless complaints and whining. Power and the will to use it is what gets respect on the global stage. Russia is becoming a joke under Mr Putin’s leadership.
And many non-chess players and armchair generals continue to look for some kinetic or otherwise macho action, utterly ignoring the pieces on the chessboard and unable to see the long game. But yes, by all means continue to project your own internal state on Putin and Russia. Very weak. Yeah.
It is pretty clear that the side that cries like a bunch histrionic teenage girls incessantly is the weaker party. There is nothing in the least bit masculine or strong about the US position and posturing. And need I remind you that a gentleman does not slap a woman. So why do you expect Putin to slap the US? Poor Biden just needs a hug.
It should be patently evident to everyone that literally nothing needs to be done in order for the US empire to collapse. Right now the US is just in the denial stage. When it comes to acceptance we can move on and become a normal country and focus on our own business. In the meantime, I tune out the crying and tantrums.
The West suffers from a peculiar inability to endure time and thinks that all decisive measures must somehow occur immediately and be visible to the naked eye. But immediate gratification and image over substance is a Western pathology, not a Russian one. May I offer that this is why you perceive Russia as weak and indecisive. The American analysts Paul Craig Roberts also suffers from this delusion despite his insights at every other level. Know that there is a tectonic, geopolitical reshaping going on in real time with respect to Russia and the West. Breathe deeply, let go and feel the visceral, subterranean manifestations of this organic metamorphosis as it emerges. Patience over impulse and substance over image are the virtues of this new age.
“Patience over impulse and substance over image are the virtues of this new age.” – well said.
Putin is acting wisely. You have to look at the whole, at the big picture. The Ukronazis need to be unmasked. Being male is also being wise. Folly can be part of all kinds of people. The Russian leadership is acting wisely, like excellent chess players.
Watch this video about the beautiful Russian soul:
https://youtu.be/iOlE0TUeK0A
breathtaking excellent…..
Henry. It seems the only game you understand is the one the USUK play. Russia is neither of these two. Russia does not have a history of going into countries for things and slaughtering people based on lies. It does not spend all it’s time lying to it’s own people, stealing from it’s own people. It does not keep prisons that are used for slave labor it does not create violent protests to use as the next campaign talking points. This is our lovely history slaughter by any means so we have everyone’s stuff! Russia doesn’t need to treat the world this way when it can trade as an equal, when it is happy with in it’s boarders. This also give her time to play the game of Chess with a crazed bully, with limited death and destruction. America in it’s impatient state is looking more and more the violent fool it is this just adds to the stupidity The US has lost all respect around the world and all will pivot away from an untrustworthy worthy psychopath
And yet … step by step Putin and his team pulled Russia from broken state betrayed by its own communist elite into the country that is the most self-sufficient and therefore the most independent out of all countries in the world. When you look at the big picture what Putin is attempting doesn’t have a historical precedent. Every time when an old system was dying and a new one was being born, there was a major war, bloodshed and destruction. Putin is trying to avoid that.
Lavrov je ukratko objasnio delovanje predstavnika UN Vokera na delu Srbije, kosova i metohije i laznumu zastavu.
Nakon toga Srbi su se sibali sa 19. drzava NATO pakta. Zamisli, mala Srbija protiv NATO-a.
Toliko su bili jaki da ni jedna cizma vojnicka i posle 78.dana besomucnog bombardovanja, nije htela-ili nije smela da stupi na svetu zemlju Srbije.
Kao ucesnik ratova devedesetih gledam sve ovo po svetu, donbas,krim,kosovo,republika srpska……
sirija,iran, izrael ,turska, ujguri ,kina , tajvan , kurili, japan, mediteran, …. i onda naravno RUSIJA-NEMACKA
Sta ponovo moze london siti, Protokoli Sionskih mudraca, Dalsove smernice u hladnom ratu …i ciji je Putin
Machine Translation:
Lavrov briefly explain the actions of representatives of the UN Walker on the part of Serbia, kosovo and metohija and laznumu flag.
After that Serbs were sibali with 19. the state of NATO. Imagine, little Serbia against NATO.
They were so strong that even a boot vojnicka and after 78.day besomucnog bombing, she wouldn’t-or didn’t dare to enter the holy land of Serbia.
As a participant in the wars in the nineties I look at this all around the world, donbas,crimea,kosovo,the republic of srpska……
syria,iran, israel ,turkey, ujguri ,china , taiwan , kurili, japan, the mediterranean, the …. and then of course RUSSIA-GERMANY
What again could london city, Protocols Sionskih sage, Dalsove guidance in the cold war and whose Putin
It seems Russia is still throwing softballs at neonazis, where, the whole game become something different altogether. On daily basis, Blinken, Biden, and the rest of the clique go batshit crazy with all kinds of ridiculous accusations, and then next day they want to talk like nothing happened. Flush and repeat.
Paul Craig Roberts’ contribution:
The Kremlin thinks Russia can negotiate a security agreement with the West, a West that most definitely does not want Russia to be secure.
I am convinced that the only way a dangerous war can be avoided is if:
Putin accepts the vote of the Donbass Russians for their homelands to return to Russia
Putin makes it clear that Ukraine will be destroyed if the country becomes a NATO member
Putin makes it clear that any US or NATO missile base put in Ukraine will be destroyed
Putin makes it clear that US missile bases on its borders will be destroyed if not removed
Putin provides Iran with the conventional missiles to defend its air space
Russia ignores the West and globalism and creates a Russian-Chinese trade bloc
Washington constantly warns Europe of a dangerous Russia, but once Europe sees decisive Russian action, Europe will cease to cooperate in baiting the Bear. Russia’s attitude should be that Europe can purchase Russian energy priced in rubles or gold if they want it, but otherwise the West can go to hell.
“…Sergey Lavrov: I am sure that even people who are halfway interested in international politics have become convinced that this is only propaganda, fake news and lies. The main thing is for those who invent these fakes to believe in them. They like it. If they do, they can continue. Why not, indeed?
This is ridiculous…They are creating pretexts for the future…”
———————-
This false flag can be called, paraphrasing Garcia Marquez, “Chronicle of an Invasion Foretold,” another brainchild of the neocons, their footprints are all over. Having turned Trotsky’s “theory of Permanent Revolution” on its head, converting it in a counterrevolutionary tool, they have no problems moving “invasion dates,” if not today, then tomorrow, this is the “Permanent Counterrevolution.”
Lone Wolf
“According to available information, mercenaries are being recruited in Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, including for deployment to Donbass in an attempt to knock Russia off balance. ”
We have known this for years! After the ex-Yu wars, the infrastructure for these mercenaries remained. It was never dismantled. Prior to Ukraine, they were in Syria, Afghanistan, Armenia…
When the US fled Kabul, they airlifted their mercenaries (officially
Afghan “refugees” according mainstream media) to two main destinations in Europe: Ramstein air base in Germany and Bondsteel military base in Kosovo.
There was some intense logistics, since a few months, in the Bosnian-Croat & Albanian training camps, which caught the attention of the locals, and at one point there was alarming chatter in Serbia and Republika Srpska that the newly arrived mercenaries & arms were to be used locally…but now Lavrov confirms they are in Ukraine…. God help the good people of Donbass.
Can Washington drag Russia into a war in Ukraine? This is unlikely. An open Russian invasion would make no sense, walking into an American trap like a fool. Far better to wait and let Washington force Ukraine to attack Donbas first. The forces in Donbas need to hold out for as long as possible until Russian public opinion demands that Russian forces are sent in to support them. In such a conflict the Kremlin needs the full support of the Russian people if they are to succeed.
Support for attacking Donbas among the people in Ukraine is virtually zero. Only fanatics like Asov want to start the civil war again. Witness the lack of support for the national resistance day last week. The Ukrainian people stayed away in droves. It was a telling and embarrassing fiasco, with more foreign journalists than demonstrators!
But how long can Washington repeat their propaganda about a Russian invasion coming, when the Russians refuse to invade? There are multiple signs that Washington is going mad, and their propaganda more extreme and unhinged, with crazy conspiracy theories spilling out everywhere, as their credibility crumbles.
At The Schiller Institutes Conference, “We need a New Security Architecture” which is currently live Natalia Vitrenko, (a Russian) and Chairwoman of the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine (PSPU) just gave a very impassioned speech. She said the #1 priority by far is the de-Nazification of Ukraine for which international laws do currently exist but that they require international help to bring this about. She went on to say that the armaments that have been flowing into Ukraine all have huge debts attached that Ukraine can never repay. Martyanov would probably say that Ukraine has now been “eaten” by the west.
The joint statement issued by China and Russia on February 4, The New World Order, is the most important development in The Great Game since the end of the USSR. It is a blueprint for a post US Empire world and will effect every person on the planet.
The most important part of that document is in the 2nd paragraph, which is one very, very long sentence. I will quote the most important part.
“to protect the United Nation driven architecture and the international laws based World Order, seek genuine multi polarity with the United nations and it’s security council playing a central and coordinating role”.
Why would China and Russia tie themselves to the UN security council when USA, UK and France can veto every proposal they make? I suggest they expect the permanent members to change very soon, the UK and France should not be there and they expect the USA to be more compliant, or gone.
To understand Russia’s actions in The Ukraine we must assume they will be within “International Laws”.
The Donbass will not be allowed to declare UDI (or unilateral deceleration of independence) for that would open the door to the Uighur’s, Tibetans, Kurd’s, Basques and a 100 other flashpoints around the world to do the same.
Nor will Russia invade unless directly attacked and they will not alter The Ukraine’s borders or break the country up, all these actions would break the “International Laws Based Order” Russia and China are trying to promote.
Far from being a done deal, Russia will still have to get the UN Security Council to accept that the Crimean Peninsula is a part of Russia.
Could The Saker please publish an article on The New World Order by himself or someone who understands the long term implications regarding what actions would be permissible by Russia and or The Ukraine under international law. Of course the US led Empire breaks International Laws every day, but that is why they must be overthrown.
@”The Chancellor replied that this was done to prevent a genocide of Kosovo Albanians”
This anti-Serb conspiracy theory was debunked even by German state media years ago:
“IT BEGAN WITH A LIE (German documentary (ENG SUBS) about the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999)”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIx-T9LH2eM
In 1941 Adolf Hitler invented similar anti-Serb conspiracy theories and lies to justify his war of aggression and genocide against the Serbs:
“Members and officers of the German Embassy, employees of our consulates in Yugoslavia, were daily being subjected to the most humiliating attacks. The German schools, exactly as in Poland, were laid in ruins by bandits. Innumerable German nationals were kidnapped and attacked by Yugoslavs and some even were killed.”
“The internal political crisis in Yugoslavia will be aggravated by political guarantees promised to the Croats.”
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/02-08-46.asp
And yet … step by step Putin and his team pulled Russia from broken state betrayed by its own communist elite into the country that is the most self-sufficient and therefore the most independent out of all countries in the world. When you look at the big picture what Putin is attempting doesn’t have a historical precedent. Every time when an old system was dying and a new one was being born, there was a major war, bloodshed and destruction. Putin is trying to avoid that.