The head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, said on Tuesday that Russia sees “no point” in maintaining the current diplomatic presence in the West, and announced that Moscow will focus on Asia and Africa.
“There is of course no sense or desire to maintain the same presence in Western countries”Lavrov stated during a meeting with young diplomats recently recruited by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Russian diplomats work “in conditions that can hardly be described as humane, they are constantly creating problems for them, they are constantly uttering threats,” Lavrov stressed.
“But the most important thing is that there will be no more work after Europe has decided to cut itself off from us, to suspend all economic cooperation”continued.
“What can we do? We can’t force others to love us”added the head of Russian diplomacy.
“Third world countries, both in Asia and in Africa, need extra attention”he assured, specifying that Russia has numerous projects in these regions of the world, especially commercial ones, “that require diplomatic follow-up”.
“Under these conditions, we will focus on countries that are willing to work on an equal footing and cooperate with us on the basis of mutual benefit”concluded Lavrov.
Numerous Western countries, including the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, Bulgaria or Portugal, have expelled Russian diplomats en masse after the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine on February 24.
In some cases, these evictions were accompanied by charges of espionage.
Moscow has promised to respond to any of these measures, and dozens of Western diplomats have already been expelled from Russia.
The military offensive launched by Russia in Ukraine on Feb. 24 has already resulted in more than 13 million people fleeing — more than six million internally displaced persons and more than 7.6 million to European countries — according to the most recent UN data, which rank this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945).
The Russian invasion – justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by the generality of the international community, which has responded by sending arms to Ukraine and Russia political and economic sanctions.
The UN presented 6,306 dead civilians and 9,602 wounded as confirmed since the start of the war, stressing that these numbers are far below the actual number.
Source: DN
