Russia’s Lavrov: We Won’t Allow West to Blow Up Pipelines Again

By Staff, Agencies

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed that Moscow is no longer perceives the US and its allies as reliable trade partners and will not allow itself to be dependent on them.

Lavrov further stated that “We will not rely on any partners in the West anymore. We will not allow them to blow up the pipelines again.”

The Russian top diplomat was referring to the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, which connect Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea. They were heavily damaged by explosions in late September, an act that Moscow maintains significantly benefited the US.

US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, citing an anonymous source, reported last month that the sabotage was a clandestine US-Norwegian operation. Both nations dismissed the information.

Meanwhile, Lavrov assessed that “Germany was humiliated” by the situation, including by the reaction to Hersh’s report in Europe.

He argued that the goal of the crisis was to “reduce Europe” to being a subordinate of the US, to “undercut Europe’s competitive edge” and to “ruin the economic link” between the EU and Russia. Moscow has other markets to which it can offer its products, the top diplomat added.

“We will be oriented to reliable partners, credible partners – India, China are certainly among them,” Lavrov suggested.

In parallel, he reiterated Moscow’s assertions that the Ukraine conflict was triggered by Western policies and explained that a peaceful resolution to the hostilities depended on Kiev’s overturning its own ban on negotiating with Russia.