"In general, I do not tend to explain all the events in the world with a conspiracy theory," Mr. Lavrov stated in an interview with the magazine Itogi.
"The fact that countries, especially those that have power and influence, desire to strengthen their positions in the region and in the world is an absolutely natural phenomenon," he stressed.
Each country decides for itself which region is important for it in terms of energy resources, security, protection from potential terrorist attacks and other threats.
"When this happens on the basis of fair competition, with respect to international legal norms, on a transparency basis, I do not see anything unusual in such actions," Mr. Lavrov emphasized.
"We respect the desire of our partners to defend and ensure their national interests, though we expect the same attitude toward our actions aimed at the protection of Russia's interests," Mr. Lavrov said.
"We would like to achieve the highest level of transparency in dialogue with our partners to avoid any misunderstandings. I think if we acted in this manner, many allegations against plans of certain countries, including Russia, would disappear," he said.
"Strangely enough, nobody in the West paid attention to the conclusions of the Venice Committee on the serious violations of democratic principles in Georgia," Mr. Lavrov noted.
"Recently, this committee published a report on the results of the visit of the Council of Europe's mission to Georgia. The report contains serious criticism of the current situation with democratic freedoms, including freedom of speech, with observance of human rights in relation to Tbilisi's refusal to follow the recommendations on the necessity of re-establishing Adzharia's autonomy, that according to the Council of Europe, had been practically abolished," Mr. Lavrov stated.
Mr. Lavrov does not believe that the auction of Yuganskneftegaz, Yukos' former main production unit, might have a negative impact on Russia's position in the global economy or on investment climate in the country.
"The recent increase of Russia's rating to "investment grade" clearly answers the question," the Russian minister told the Itogi magazine.
Standard & Poor's international rating agency recently upgraded Russia's investment rating from BB+ to BBB-.
"The subject of Yukos has been mentioned less frequently recently," he said in response to the question of whether the Yukos case will be discussed at the Russian-US summit in Bratislava.
"Everybody realized that Russia has the right to defend its economic interests, that due taxes must be paid in full and that the punishment for tax evasion in the West is as severe as in Russia," Mr. Lavrov said.
