West is Pushing Kiev Into Threatening Vital Interests of Russia and Belarus, Lavrov Says

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has arrived in Minsk to hold meetings with his Belarusian counterpart Sergey Aleinik and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Military cooperation, defense issues, and European security are high on the agenda.

The West has turned Ukraine into a bridgehead for subversive activities against the Union State, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a press conference after a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Sergey Aleinik on Thursday.

Russia's top diplomat stressed that Moscow and Minsk both share the view that the West is directly pushing Kiev into creating threats to the vital interests of Russia and Belarus.

"We share the hope of our Belarusian friends that someday there will come an awareness of the dead end of such a policy pursued by Western politicians on the European continent. There is hope, it dies last, but so far we do not see any signs of sanity on the other side of barricades built by former Western partners," Lavrov continued.

The two foreign ministers also discussed attempts by the West to interfere in the affairs of Moscow and Minsk.

"We particularly emphasized the continuing attempts of the West to interfere in the internal affairs of our states, including through the introduction of illegal unilateral restrictive measures aimed, as Washington and the European bureaucrats already do not hesitate to publicly declare, to undermine our economies and the internal political stability of Russia and Belarus," Lavrov said at the presser.

However, "this Western blitzkrieg" has failed both in Russia and in Belarus, the Russian foreign minister added.

Lavrov pointed out that Russia would do everything to make its colleagues at NATO and the European Union "sober up" as soon as possible and abandon their "colonial illusions."

The Russian minister also said that Western colleagues are "presumptuous" people who put their "irrepressible political ambitions, attempts to realize their sense of superiority, their colonial and neocolonial dreams and illusions above the interests of their own peoples."

The Russian minister then suggested that a number of politicians in Europe begin to realize that they are being used and deliberately weakened.

"Europe, at least responsible politicians in a number of European countries, in my opinion, is beginning to understand, that they are being used, by and large, that they are being plunged into de-industrialization, they are being deliberately weakened so that they do not even think about trying to become an independent player," Lavrov said.

He likewise expressed his confidence that such a situation "will someday pass and politicians who will take the interests of their peoples into account will come to power in European countries."

Lavrov has also revealed that Russia and Belarus signed a memorandum on strengthening biological security, which is aimed at stopping threats from third countries. The minister explained that the implementation of said document implies a regular exchange of information between the institutions in order to develop response methods if necessary.

Aside from holding talks with his Belarusian counterpart, Lavrov met with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to discuss bilateral cooperation in the military-political sphere and defense issues.