RUSSIAN Foreign Minister Lavrov has said that the US is ‘running the show in Kiev’, and that an attack on Russian citizens would be an attack on the Russian Federation.
He said: ‘Now, after Joe Biden visiting Kiev this counterterrorist operation has been declared in the active phase again,’ Lavrov said
‘It’s quite telling that they chose the moment of the visit of the Vice President of the United States to announce the resumption of this operation, because the launching of this operation happened immediately after CIA Director John Brennan’s visit to Kiev,’ the foreign minister said.
‘So I don’t have any reasons not to believe that the Americans are running the show in a very close way,’ he added.
Sergey Lavrov said that the amassing of Russian troops along the border with Ukraine was within the bounds of international law and denied the presence of Russian troops in East Ukraine. Describing a worst case scenario in the Ukrainian crisis, Lavrov said Russia would be forced to respond if it were attacked.
‘If we are attacked, we would certainly respond. If our interests, our legitimate interests, the interests of Russians have been attacked directly, like they were in South Ossetia for example, I do not see any other way but to respond in accordance with international law,’ he said.
‘Russian citizens being attacked is an attack against the Russian Federation,’ he said. The foreign minister also spoke about American involvement in the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, accusing Washington of trying to manipulate the situation.
‘There is no reason not to believe that the Americans are running the show,’ said Lavrov, referencing US Vice-President Joe Biden’s visit to Kiev and its coincidence with the renewed counter-terror operation on activists in eastern Ukraine.’
The situation in Ukraine is just another example of Washington trying to gain ground in the geopolitical fight, the minister said. ‘Ukraine is just one manifestation of the American unwillingness to yield in the geopolitical fight,’ he added.
‘Americans are not ready to admit that they cannot run the show in each and every part of the globe from Washington alone,’ said Lavrov, adding Washington’s ‘ready-made solutions’ cannot remedy a crisis that it does not understand.
Lavrov accused Kiev’s coup-appointed government of going back on its pledge to put a stop to all violence. In Geneva we agreed there must be an end of all violence. Next afternoon Turchinov declared almost a state of emergency and ordered the army to shoot at the people.’
