NATO’s continued expansion and efforts to turn Eurasia into its “fiefdom” is a matter of serious concern for Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. Speaking at a security conference in Minsk, Belarus, the chief diplomat ridiculed the bloc’s insistence that it is a “purely defensive alliance.”
According to Lavrov, NATO has been “artificially expanding its zone of responsibility far beyond the Euro-Atlantic region” by hijacking the idea of “the indivisibility of Euro-Atlantic security and the so-called Indo-Pacific region.” The bloc’s efforts to spread into Asia are being carried out with “the obvious goal of containing China, isolating Russia, and confronting the DPRK [North Korea],” he added
Lavrov noted that NATO has also been spreading its influence to other regions of Eurasia, including the Middle East, the South Caucasus, Central Asia, and South Asia. “Everywhere, they’re trying to gain a foothold,”Lavrov said, adding that in most cases this influence proves to be “extremely negative” due to the bloc’s “aggressive policies.”
“A reasonable question arises: if this is the general trend, do we want our entire vast, beautiful continent to be turned into NATO’s fiefdom? We cannot agree with this,” Lavrov stressed.
The minister also raised concerns over NATO’s plans to intensify activities in the Arctic, stressing that Russia, as well as other “sensible countries,” would like to see the region as a territory of peace and cooperation.
Responding to continued claims by Western leaders of a supposed threat posed by Moscow, Lavrov reiterated that Russia has no intention of attacking any NATO country and is willing to legally commit to this in future security guarantees.
At the same time, the minister stated that the West is openly preparing for a “new great European war” while EU leaders “proudly” declare that any future security guarantees should be signed “not with Russia’s participation, but against Russia.”
EU and NATO elites have adopted a policy of isolating anyone who pursues an independent policy based on national interests and common sense, Lavrov claimed, adding that “as a result, there is no prospect of meaningful dialogue with the majority of these elites in Europe.”
Macron ‘dreams’ of military intervention in Ukraine – Moscow
French President Emmanuel Macron is preparing to intervene militarily in Ukraine, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has claimed. In a statement published on Monday, the agency’s press department suggested that he desperately wants to leave his mark on history.
“Having failed as a politician and despaired of ever pulling the country out of the long social and economic crisis, he does not give up the hope to go down in history as a military leader,” the SVR claimed, adding that Macron “dreams of a military intervention in Ukraine” and is “known for fantasizing about Napoleon’s ‘laurels’.”
According to the SVR, the French General Staff has reportedly already been instructed to form a contingent of up to 2,000 troops “for deployment in Ukraine.” The core of this force is expected to be made up of troops from the French Foreign Legion, mainly recruited from Latin American countries.
The SVR stated that Legion personnel are already deployed in regions of Poland bordering Ukraine, where they are undergoing “intensive joint combat training” and receiving weapons and equipment. Their transfer to central Ukraine has reportedly been scheduled in the near future.
The agency also said that France has already begun preparing for casualties, with “hundreds of additional hospital beds” reportedly being created to accommodate wounded soldiers, while French medics are said to be receiving field training to handle combat injuries.
Paris intends to describe the deployment as limited to instructors for the Ukrainian army in the event it becomes public, the SVR stated.
The intelligence service went on to compare Macron’s ambitions to those of historical figures who fought Russia in the past, such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Swedish King Charles XII.
It added that while the French leader dreams of mirroring those leaders’ accomplishments, he appears to have forgotten that their campaigns ended in defeat.
“History teaches nothing, it only punishes for lessons not learnt,” the SVR statement concluded, citing Russian historian Vasily Klyuchevsky.
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