Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a press conference on European security issues on Thursday that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has reverted back to its Cold War priorities and Russians aren’t wanted in Europe.
The Russian diplomat noted that NATO policies in Europe degraded back to the Cold War era, as Washington is bent on exercising total control over the EU, so any meaningful cooperation between Russia and Europe is unlikely in the near future. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that the EU is trying to create a security system against Russia, not with it.
In his brief on European security issues, the foreign minister stressed that the old format of relations between Russia and the West is gone. Lavrov added he is not sure it is possible to restore cooperation between Russia and the EU on the European security issue, but Moscow is ready to hear what the Western countries have to say.
"If our Western colleagues understand their mistakes and express readiness to return to the discussion of the documents that we have proposed in December, I think it will be a positive factor. Although I doubt that they will have the strength and will to do it, but if it happens, then of course we will be ready to return to the discussion," Lavrov said.
The minister said Moscow remembers how NATO was set up when the alliance’s first secretary general, Lord Hastings Lionel Ismay, "came up with a formula to keep the Russians out of Europe, the Americans in and the Germans down."
"What’s happening now signifies NATO’s return to the conceptual priorities that were developed 73 years ago. Nothing has changed: the Russians are not welcome in Europe, and the Americans have already subjugated the entire Europe and it’s not just Germany that’s kept down, but all of the European Union. So, the philosophy of domination and unilateral advantages hasn’t gone anywhere following the end of the Cold War," Lavrov said.
The minister urged not to forget that during its existence, NATO "could hardly take credit for even one real success story."
"It brings devastation and suffering. I have already mentioned the aggression against Syria, the aggression against Libya, the destruction of the Libyan statehood," the minister continued. "While in 1991 NATO consisted of 16 countries, now there are already 30 of them. Sweden and Finland are on the cusp of accession. The alliance deploys its forces and military infrastructure ever closer to our borders.".
Lavrov recounted the words of NATO's first Secretary General, Lord Hastings Lionel Ismay, who described the core policy of the alliance regarding Europe as "keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down".
“What is happening now means that NATO is returning to those conceptual priorities that were developed 73 years ago. Nothing has changed: they want to keep the Russians outside of Europe, the Americans have already enslaved all of Europe, and not only the Germans, but the entire European Union. So, the philosophy of dominance and unilateral advantages did not disappear anywhere after the end of the Cold War," he said.
Decaying Organizations
The diplomat also elaborated on the sad state of European intergovernmental organizations, noting that Western policies had crippled the Council of Europe beyond repair, while the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe also suffers from multiple problems.
He noted that Sweden, which presided over the OSCE last year, had abandoned a balanced stance, and had facilitated the subjugation of the organization by Washington and Brussels.
"Of course, the OSCE special monitoring mission in Ukraine contributed to the discrediting of the OSCE's work in Ukraine, which, in gross violation of its mandate, did not respond to the daily violations of the Minsk agreements by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The OSCE mission essentially sided with the Kiev regime," Lavrov stressed, noting that that after the closure of the mission it was revealed that its officials cooperated with Western special services.
In the meantime, Poland, which has presided over it in 2022, is "digging a grave" for the OSCE, undermining any consensus that is left in there, he said. "I can responsibly say that Poland's anti-presidency in the OSCE will occupy a most unattractive place in the history of this organization. No one has ever done such damage to the OSCE at its helm," Lavrov told reporters.
The security space in Europe is fragmenting, and the OSCE itself is becoming a marginalized entity, the diplomat added.
Earlier in the day, the annual conference of the 29th OSCE Ministerial Council started in the Polish city of Lodz. Warsaw did not allow Lavrov to take part in the meeting, as it believes that it is necessary to "absolutely isolate" Russia in the international arena amid its military operation in Ukraine, according to senior Polish diplomat Pawel Jablonski.
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