Russia and China are capable of thwarting the dangerous plans of the West and NATO, which are trying to disrupt the unity of the Eurasian space, Russian Ambassador to China Igor Morgulov said on Tuesday.
‘The Washington-driven North Atlantic Alliance is trying to lend a global scope to its activities. It seeks to penetrate into the Asia-Pacific region and is trying to divide the Eurasian space into a network of exclusive clubs and military blocs.’
He was speaking at the opening ceremony of the Eighth International Conference, ‘Russia and China: Cooperation in a New Era, organised by the Russian Council on International Affairs and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
‘These are very dangerous plans but I am convinced that Russia and China are capable of thwarting these dangerous plans through joint efforts,’ he went on.
As Morgulov clarified, in this context, the ‘consolidation of Russia-China foreign policy coordination’ remains highly relevant.
‘In this regard, I express my great hope that today you will have an in-depth discussion of all of these issues and have a substantive conversation with relevant recommendations and advice for us, for practitioners, which would address both our bilateral efforts with China and (joint actions) at such important international platforms as the UN, the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation), and the BRICS,’ the ambassador concluded.
Since 2015, the Russian Council on International Affairs and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences have held annual joint conferences in Moscow and Beijing.
They have become leading forums for Russian and Chinese experts to discuss pressing international issues and bilateral cooperation.
This time, the focus will be on the challenges China and Russia are facing in the current complex global geopolitical situation.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said the United States adopts double standards on regime change in other countries, adding that Washington supports them when they serve its interests and rejects them if they target ‘puppet’ governments.
Speaking on Monday, Lavrov said the US response to the numerous attempts at regime change that occurred around the world in recent years was different and depended on ‘who was in power and who was trying to carry out the coup.’
‘Where the West is happy with the current government, in such situations no protest can be legitimate.
‘But where the government doesn’t reflect the interests of the hegemony and is pursuing the national interests, in those cases we see various unlawful forces are being stimulated (to attack the authorities).’
Lavrov cited the US different approaches to the regime change in Ukraine in 2014 and the conflict that erupted in Yemen a year later as an example.
According to the minister, the so-called Maidan coup in Kiev was a ‘revolt that happened against the legitimate president’ and which was marred by ‘bloody provocations against the unarmed police.’
He said that Ukraine’s democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovich had been forced to flee violence despite an EU-sponsored agreement that was reached just hours earlier between his government and the opposition on settling the crisis.
However, he added: ‘There were no protests against that insurgency from the US or its European allies. So, they just recognised it as a zig-zag in the democratic process.
‘All those years, all our attempts to bring the Ukrainian situation to a political settlement were met with the response (from the Americans and Europeans) that Yanukovich left the country,’ Lavrov said.
On the other hand, Lavrov said, when Yemen’s Western-backed president Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi resigned and ‘ran to Saudi Arabia’ in 2015 amid a political conflict with Ansarullah resistance movement, ‘we’ve heard the West saying that he’s still a legitimate president and that he needs to be installed back in Yemen. And only after that the settlement process will start’.
Russia’s top diplomat also pointed out that the Americans and their allies rejected protests against the ‘puppet’ government of Maria Sandu in Moldova, but fully backed the demonstrations by the supporters of former President Mikhail Saakashvili in Georgia, where the West ‘doesn’t like the current government.’
- The New York Times has reported US intelligence officials were aware that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of the Wagner group, was planning to take military action against Russia.
Lavrov said an investigation into possible involvement of foreign intelligence in Wagner Group’s actions is underway in Russia, without giving further details.
He stated that the US envoy to Russia told the diplomatic service that Washington had nothing to do with the mutiny.
‘When yesterday (Tuesday) US Ambassador (to Russia) Lynne Tracy communicated with Russian representatives, (she) was transmitting signals.
‘Their sense is that the US has nothing to do with it (the mutiny), that the US does hope that nuclear weapons will be in order; that American diplomats will not suffer.’
He said Tracy particularly emphasised that Washington considers the situation with the Wagner Group to be Russia’s ‘internal affair.’
This is while the latest reports suggest that the Western countries either had a direct role in the mutiny or knew about the whole Wagner plot in advance.
According to a report published in the New York Times, US spy agencies ‘strongly suspected’ that Prigozhin was planning to take military action against Russia, days before he ordered his troops to march on Moscow.
However, US officials decided to keep silent about Prigozhin’s plans. The pretext was that if they said anything, Russian President Vladimir Putin could have accused them of orchestrating a coup, the report said.
Lavrov said that CNN also reported that American intelligence had known about the upcoming mutiny for several days, but decided not to tell anyone about it, ‘in the hope that the rebellion would succeed.’
He added that another report said it ‘expected’ the mutiny to ‘meet more resistance’ and be ‘much bloodier’, which according to Lavrov shows ‘what exactly was expected in the West.’
Lavrov also said reports claiming that the US has changed its intention to sanction the Wagner Group indicates that Washington’s approach ‘depends on what it wants at this particular stage from a certain player.’
The Russian government fully ensured the financing of the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC), President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the Defence Ministry’s military personnel.
‘I want to note and I want everyone to know that the financing of the entire Wagner group was fully ensured by the state,’ he said. ‘We fully financed this group from the Defence Ministry, from the state budget,’ Putin added.
From May 2022 to May 2023, the state alone allocated 86.2 bln roubles ($1 bln) to PMC Wagner in the form of salary to fighters and incentive rewards, the president noted. ‘Of that amount, remuneration equalled 70.38 bln (roubles), incentive rewards amounted to 15.87 bln (roubles), insurance payments totalled 110.17 bln (roubles),’he said.
Meanwhile, Wagner’s owner, the Concord company, received 80 bln roubles ($940 mln) from the state in one year for supplying food and providing food services to the army, Putin added.
‘The state fully ensured the financing [of Wagner], whereas a portion of that group, this Concord company, earned 80 bln roubles during the same period,’ he said.
‘Hopefully, nobody stole anything during these activities or, let’s say, stole less,’ he noted. ‘We will obviously look into all this,’ the president stressed.
- Havana is Moscow’s greatest ally in the Caribbean region, Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Tuesday at a meeting with visiting Cuban Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces Alvaro Lopez Miera.
‘Cuba has always been and continues to be Russia’s key ally in the region. Our Cuban friends have confirmed their attitude toward our country by demonstrating a complete understanding of the goals of the special military operation in Ukraine,’ he said.
According to Shoigu, Russian-Cuban relations are currently on the rise, with political dialogue showing positive dynamics.
This year alone, several high-ranking Russian delegations visited Cuba and Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero paid an official visit to Russia not long ago.
