On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he did not believe the crisis in Ukraine would escalate into a nuclear war, but warned the US and Europe that Moscow did not want to be reliant on the West again.
Following Moscow’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, the West levied harsh sanctions on practically the entire Russian banking and corporate sector, putting the country’s economy in the worst state since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
“I don’t want to believe that, and I don’t believe it,” Lavrov told reporters in Turkey when asked if a nuclear war might be provoked by a Kremlin correspondent for Russia’s Kommersant newspaper.
President Vladimir Putin’s foreign minister since 2004, Sergei Lavrov, claimed the nuclear issue had been brought up solely by the West, which, like Sigmund Freud, the inventor of psychoanalysis, kept returning to nuclear war.
“Of course, it causes us anxiety when the West, like Freud, continues returning to this theme,” Lavrov said during talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in Antalya, Turkey.
Talks about a possible Russian invasion of the former Soviet Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, all of which are now members of the European Union and NATO, “appear to be old hoaxes,” according to Lavrov.
After the Cold War, which split the world for much of the twentieth century, pitting the West against the Soviet Union and its allies, Russia and the United States now have the world’s largest nuclear arsenals.
Putin ordered Russia’s nuclear forces to be placed on high alert on February 27, citing Western sanctions and provocative remarks by NATO military leaders. Later, Russian officials referenced British comments regarding a probable NATO-Russia confrontation.
TURN TO THE EAST
After the United States enlarged NATO’s membership up to Russia’s borders and supported pro-Western authorities in Kyiv, Putin said the “special military operation” in Ukraine is necessary to safeguard Russian security.
Ukraine claims to be battling for its survival, and the US, as well as its European and Asian allies, have denounced Russia’s invasion. China has urged restraint.
Lavrov added that now that the West has imposed devastating sanctions on Russia, Russia is turning away from it and will deal with the economic consequences.
“We will emerge from this crisis with a revitalized mentality and conscience: we will have no illusions that the West can be a trustworthy partner,” Lavrov stated. “We will do everything we can to ensure that we never again rely on the West in areas of our lives that are important to our people.”
When the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, many people in Russia and the West hoped the Cold War’s differences would be resolved.
When asked about US energy sanctions, Lavrov stated that Russia would not try to persuade any buyer to buy its energy.
Lavrov said Russia’s oil and gas have markets, a clear allusion to China, the world’s second-largest economy.
