SELIGER (Tver Region), August 27 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s attempts to tackle global threats are being held back by the United States and the European Union, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday.
“However our collective steps on the world arena on tackling all of these challenges and threats are being hampered by attempts by the United States and the West and are as a whole holding their dominating position in global life, a position to which they are accustomed to over several centuries and are artificially holding back the realization of a multi-polar and politically centralized world that reflects objective tendencies of world development,” Lavrov said at an all-Russian youth forum.
Relations between Russia and the West have deteriorated notably since the Ukrainian crisis started, as Moscow and Washington appear to have completely different views of the situation in Ukraine.
When legitimate Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted, the new interim government came to power and signed the first part of an association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union.
The United States has backed the actions of the new Kiev government, even though they led to mass violent protests.
Many Ukrainians refused to recognize the legitimacy of the government in Kiev that seized power. Crimea held a public referendum, in which 96 percent of voters supported the reunification of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol with the Russian Federation.
As a response to the referendum, the United States and the European Union have imposed targeted sanctions against Russian economy.
Since April, Kiev authorities have been conducting a special military operation against independence supporters in eastern Ukraine. Over 2,000 people have been killed and more than 5,000 injured since the operation started, according to UN figures.
Moscow has repeatedly condemned Kiev’s military campaign against the Russian-speaking population in the east of Ukraine and called for an immediate stop to the bloodshed.
During recent months, Moscow has urged the Ukrainian parties to start a peaceful dialogue, provided help to the troubled Ukrainian regions, and begun hosting Ukrainian refugees.
Nonetheless, the West continues to say Russia is meddling in Ukrainian internal affairs, a claim that Moscow has repeatedly rejected.
