Lavrov, Amerikalı sunucu Tucker Carlson’a mülakat verdi
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who visited the EU on December 5 as part of the OSCE summit in Malta for the first time since February 2022, gave an interview to American television presenter Tucker Carlson.
Previously, he had an interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin in February 2024.
The interview was published on Carlson's own website, and the transcript in Russian was announced to the public by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Lavrov discussed the Orishnik attack on Ukraine, the causes of the conflict in Ukraine, previous attempts to stop the conflict and current peace hopes, the channels of communication with the US, the state of relations with Washington and its allies in Europe, and the sudden capture of cities in Syria after four years of calm.
'Oreshnik attack is a message to the West'
Lavrov said the attack on a defense industry facility in the Dnieper, Ukraine on November 21 with a hypersonic Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missile was an "test". Confirming what Kremlin spokesman Dmitriy Peskov said, Lavrov said the US was warned 30 minutes in advance and therefore "did not confuse it with something bigger and truly dangerous". The message was transmitted over an automatic missile test warning line.
But this was also a political message. “The message we want to convey by testing this hypersonic system in real conditions is that we are ready to do anything to protect our legitimate interests,” Lavrov said.
Lavrov reminded that Moscow's proposals to sign an agreement on security guarantees with NATO in 2021 and 2022 were rejected by the USA.
These proposals meant that the infrastructure of the Western alliance would return to its state in the late 1990s and Ukraine was denied integration into this bloc.
According to Lavrov, Oreshnik's launch is also a message to the US and its allies, which provided long-range weapons to Kiev, allowing these weapons to be used against targets in the depths of Russia in November, especially in Bryansk and Kursk oblasts.
"They should understand that we are ready to use all kinds of tools to prevent the West from giving us a 'strategic defeat'," the minister said.
On the threat of nuclear war
Lavrov recalled that the talks between President Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden in June 2021, and a statement made by five nuclear powers in January 2022, reaffirmed the thesis that “we do not want to face each other and we will respect each other's security interests and concerns.”
He said these theses continue the slogan of "no to nuclear war" put forward in the talks between President Ronald Reagan and the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987.
“When it comes to the United States, we don't want to fight anyone,” Lavrov said. This is in line with our vital interests. Absolutely. I hope this applies to the United States as well," he said.
Lavrov said, "We are not thinking of a war with the USA that could be nuclear. Our military doctrine says that the most important thing is to avoid a nuclear war," he added.
At the same time, Washington said that the US President's Strategic Affairs coordinator John Kirby, the US President's National Security Council, was concerned about the possibility that America's European allies could be damaged in the event of a nuclear-element escalation, Lavrov continued:
“So this eliminates the possibility that even mentally the US could be harmed. This makes the situation a little more risky. Perhaps if this situation continues, some reckless steps can be taken. This is not a good thing. Professionals in the field of nuclear deterrent policy know very well that this is a very dangerous game. To talk about a limited change of nuclear attack is to invite a disaster we don't want.”
Relations with the US about Trump and his opponents
According to Lavrov, Moscow wants to have good relations with everyone, "especially a large country like the USA," and Russian President Vladimir Putin has "repeatedly expressed" his respect for the American people, their achievements and history.
In response to Lavrov Carlson's question, Lavrov said, "I cannot say that [Russia and the United States are at war]. In any case, this is not what we want. We don't see any reason why Russia and the United States should not cooperate for the good of the universe. We are not officially at war," he said.
At the same time, Lavrov, who described the events in Ukraine as a "hybrid war" and that what the Ukrainians did with modern long-range weapons could not do without the direct intervention of the US troops, "This is a dangerous situation. There is no doubt about this," he said.
Admitting that both Republican President Donald Trump's pre-Democratic President Barack Obama administration before the first term and another Democratic Joe Biden administration before the second term are trying to create obstacles to future contacts between Moscow and Washington, Lavrov said, “The Biden administration wants to leave such a 'legacy' to the Trump administration.”
Stating that Trump is "a strong man who wants to get results and does not like to leave things for later", Lavrov continued as follows:
“He is quite friendly in his conversations. But that doesn't mean Trump is pro-Russia. The number of anti-Russia sanctions imposed under the Trump administration is very high. We will see everything when Trump takes office. As Putin said, the ball is on their field. We have never cut our contacts and ties in the fields of economy, trade and security.”
On the causes of the conflict in Ukraine and the conditions of peace
Speaking about the conflict in Ukraine, Lavrov detailed Moscow's official view on the events that have occurred since 2014, including the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych, the Minsk agreements, their sabotage by Kiev, and attempts to restrict the cultural rights of the country's Russian-speaking population.
Lavrov said that the conflicts in February 2022 were launched to protect these rights, which was "fully in line with the UN Charter and OSCE principles".
"If they fulfill the Minsk agreements, Ukraine (except Crimea) will be united," Lavrov added.
According to the Russian minister, the draft Russia-Ukraine agreement signed in Istanbul after the start of the clashes in February 2022 provided security guarantees for Crimea and Kiev without now “or eastern Ukraine” on the condition that Kiev does not join NATO.
The minister said, “This was their proposal. It was started by them. We were ready to develop an agreement based on these principles," he commented.
Lavrov reminded that David Arahamiya, the head of the Ukrainian delegation in Istanbul, accepted the reason for the broking of the agreements as the former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson “to come and tell us to continue fighting.”
The minister said he did not know exactly the reasons behind Johnson's actions and would not be surprised that they were dictated by an instantaneous or "long-term strategy" because he believed from his personal experience that Johnson was "unpredictable."
Lavrov said that the conditions that Putin announced in June for Moscow to start the talks were not only Ukraine's refusal to join NATO, but also the withdrawal of the Ukrainian armed forces from the Kiev-controlled part of the territory of the four territories included in Russia, according to the results of the September 2022 referendum.
Lavrov said, “Time has passed since then. We will have to consider the facts 'in the field'. And these are not just the line of contact," he said.
But at the same time, Moscow, according to the position of the Russian President, is still ready to "negotiate on the basis of agreed principles in Istanbul". Lavrov said, "The basic principle is Ukraine's neutral status. We were ready to join the group of countries that would guarantee Ukraine's collective security. There will be no NATO. There will be no military bases or military exercises with the participation of foreign troops in Ukraine," he added.
The minister continued: "He cannot tolerate a situation in which the Ukrainian legislation that bans the Russian language, the Russian media, the Russian culture and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are protected. This is a violation of Ukraine's obligations under the UN Charter. Something needs to be done about this. Since this Rusophobic legislative attack began in 2017, the West has remained silent and remains silent. We had to draw attention to this in a 'special way'.”
At the same time, Lavrov considered another negotiation condition that Putin expressed in June, namely the lifting of economic sanctions against Russia, as the least relevant condition.
“The more we live under these sanctions, the more we realize that the better it is to trust ourselves and to develop cooperation mechanisms and platforms with 'normal' countries that are friendly to us and do not confuse relations with economic interests,” Lavrov said. We learned a lot," he said.
According to the minister, now in the West there is “a fatigue caused by the Ukrainian conflict in some capitals” and “it is said that the Americans want to leave this 'job' to Europeans and focus on more important things.”
Situation in Syria
Following the OSCE summit in Malta on the night of December 6, the Russian Minister attended the international conference in Doha, the capital of Qatar, according to his Iranian counterpart Abbas Arakchi, where Russia, Turkey and Iran will discuss the situation in Syria in Astana format.
In Syria, delegation Tahrir Damascus (HTS) and pro-Turkish Syrian National Army (SMO) militants took Damas out of control of the country's second city, Aleppo, and now took control of the fourth city of Hama.
“We want to discuss the need to reverse the strict implementation of the Idlib agreements [in Doha], because the Idlib tension reduction region became the place where terrorists took action to take over Aleppo,” Lavrov said. The agreements reached in 2019-2020 gave our Turkish friends the opportunity to control the situation in the Idlib non-conflict region and to separate the HTS from the non-terrorist and Turkish-cooperating opposition. It seems that this hasn't happened yet," he said.
Pointing out that the military and intelligence agencies of Turkey, Russia and Iran are already "in contact with each other", Lavrov replied to Carlson's question about who financed the militants who launched the attack in Syria, "We have information in this direction."
“We want to discuss with all our partners in this process, how we can cut off their financing and armament channels,” Lavrov said. Americans, British and some other countries are mentioned in the information reflected to the public. Some say Israel wants to make the situation worse so that the Gaza Strip will not be under too much scrutiny. This is a complicated game," he said.
"I hope that the meetings scheduled for this week will help stabilize the situation," the minister added.
White House promises to 'smoilitary aid' to Ukraine
Published
3 minutes ago 06/12/2024AuthorWhile the White House has committed to providing Ukraine with hundreds of thousands of ammunition and armored vehicles, it has announced a comprehensive strategy that includes training Ukrainian soldiers abroad.
The White House has developed a comprehensive strategy aimed at increasing Ukraine's defense capacity and imposing new, far-reaching sanctions against Russia.
The Guardian drew attention to the messages of US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan as part of this strategy.
On December 5, Sullivan, who held a more than one-hour meeting with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskiy's advisor Andriy Yermak, announced that they would supply hundreds of thousands of additional artillery shells, thousands of missiles and hundreds of armored vehicles to Ukraine by mid-January.
In addition, the US promises to support Ukraine in eliminating the lack of manpower by offering to train Ukrainian soldiers in facilities abroad.
This move is aimed to help Ukraine gain a stronger position at the negotiating table and create a solid ground for a future solution.
On the other hand, the team of the president-elect in the US is working on a peace plan that practically excludes Ukraine's NATO membership and could include leaving a significant amount of territory to Russia, according to Reuters.
This proposal could mean a radical deviation from current US policies.