Question: I would like to begin with the disaster that has impacted many, including your ministry. Please accept my condolences for your loss, the death of your staff member, a young woman. This shows that this was more than a local terrorist attack, but an attack of a much more global scale, primarily with regard to our country.
Sergey Lavrov: This is certainly true. President Vladimir Putin has provided an in-depth and tough assessment of what happened, emphasising that the necessary instructions have been issued to the investigative bodies, the Prosecutor General’s Office, and special services. Work is underway and has results to show, which we can see from daily media reports. According to President Putin, all those who masterminded, organised, sponsored and executed this terrorist attack will be brought to justice.
Question: Shortly after the tragedy, most countries expressed their condolences to us, offered their assistance, and some Western countries came up with a number of theories as to who might be involved in this tragedy. What do you think about the international response immediately after the attack?
Sergey Lavrov: President Vladimir Putin and other officials, including the heads of the FSB and the Investigative Committee, as well as Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev, commented on the international response.
The West is trying hard to convince everyone that ISIS is behind it and there is no point in suspecting anyone else, above all Ukraine. They mention that country directly and regularly to the point of becoming obsessive about it, and keep saying Ukraine is not involved.
We have said many times that we will wait for the investigation to complete before drawing final conclusions. The investigators are still working on evidence, and new circumstances are coming to light, but we simply cannot ignore obvious theories, especially so as the perpetrators were detained near the Ukrainian border. The West is suspiciously assertive as it tries to convince us, not only publicly but also in their contacts with our diplomatic missions, that we should not suspect Ukraine, without explaining why. From the perspective of common sense, pondering the question of who benefits from this (this question invariably comes up whenever there is a crime to solve), we cannot rule out Ukraine.
Head of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Agency Kirill Budanov had the following to say yesterday: “The allegation that Ukraine committed the terrorist attack in Crocus is nonsensical. Even though Russia is an enemy, I do not condone terrorist attacks against civilians.” No one would believe what this person has to say. In May 2023, he said “these people with altered psyche (meaning Russians) should be held accountable. For us, holding accountable means physical annihilation.” He said that on the air of the 1+1 television channel. There are many other similar remarks by Ukrainian officials, including Mikhail Podolyak, Andrey Yermak, and former Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council Alexey Danilov, including outright calls to destroy “Rusnya.” They do not want Nikolayev or Kharkov to remain Russian cities, and the like. We hear threats to kill Russians in Ukraine physically and legally.
I am positive that the investigators possess these materials. Our Western colleagues, to whom we have repeatedly pointed this out, are certainly aware of these remarks, and more. After the coup, the Kiev regime unleashed a war against its own people, which was stopped after the Minsk agreements had been signed. After that, the regimes led by Poroshenko and Zelensky systematically adopted laws that destroyed everything that was Russian in Ukraine: higher education followed by secondary and then primary education, culture, mass media and much more. City officials adopted regulations outlawing events in Russian. Even everyday communication in Russian in retail outlets and restaurants was made illegal. After each such incident, we sent thousands of petitions to the Western countries and organisations, such as the Council of Europe or the OSCE, that oversee the Kiev regime asking them to condemn and to cut short these policies that are openly at odds with Ukraine’s obligations under numerous conventions that protect the rights of ethnic minorities, but they never publicly denounced these absolutely illegal actions.
The Ukrainians have passed a multitude of laws and are implementing them. These laws contradict the current Constitution of Ukraine, which explicitly states that the state guarantees the rights of the Russian (emphasis added) and other ethnic minorities in education, media, and culture. The hypocrisy of the West, which refuses to accept the obvious state of affairs (that Ukraine is a racist and Nazi regime), causes serious concern. The only available explanation is that Ukraine is just the tip of the iceberg, and the West’s stated and most important goal is to inflict a “strategic defeat on Russia.” This goal is reiterated quite regularly.
It turns out that those who are willing to try to fulfill this goal for the West at the cost of their lives are allowed to do anything, including direct support for the theory and practice of Nazism. This is sad.
Question: If you do not mind, I would like to return to the Crocus City Hall tragedy. Immediately after it happened, the Western media recalled that the US Embassy in Moscow has issued a security alert recently – it happened on March 7, 2024 – followed by several other embassies. The United States claims that there are communications channels between intelligence services, which they used to give us certain warnings as well, all while pressuring our diplomatic missions, closing and seizing their buildings, etc., which is happening in plain view.
Are there any areas where we have real contacts for cooperating and working together with our Western colleagues?
Sergey Lavrov: Practically none.
As for the fact you mentioned, the Americans are emphasising this in every possible way now, saying that they issued a warning on March 7, 2024, which was followed by another alert from the British Embassy in English on March 8, 2024. Those alerts were addressed to their citizens who are in Moscow, advising them to avoid large gatherings.
As a rule, contacts between intelligence agencies remain under the radar. However, Director of the Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov did say in a recent interview that these contacts took place, and they had indeed received a warning, but it was of a very general nature. I have nothing to add to this.
Speaking about broader international contacts, in the past few decades, after the Russian state emerged in its current form, fighting terrorism has been viewed as something that brought us all together – Russia, the West and the East. Therefore, leaders in the United States, in Europe, and in Britain agreed that this fight should be fought regardless of differences that we all may have on other political or economic matters. This is how it used to work.
We were having a hard time with the European Union. French President Emmanuel Macron said that although Russia was an aggressor and definitely wanted to invade them, they might still consider working with us in the fight against terrorism. Well, one might want to do some research before making such statements. After all, we spent many years trying to persuade the European Union to put an information sharing mechanism in place. That did not happen until 2018. The last meeting took place in 2019. After that, they, too, lost interest.
Their actual refusal to engage with us on specific counter-terrorism issues came long before the special military operation. Now they are blaming all their blunders on it and trying to disguise their true intentions, which left us with no options but to stop the war that was already underway against us by deciding to launch the special military operation.
Question: You said recently that we are not interested in Interpol’s proposal on cooperation and it is clear why.
From what countries did we receive, via diplomatic channels, real rather than empty proposals to help investigate the terrorist attack? Did we get any at all? Were they really prepared to help us investigate this terrorist attack?
Sergey Lavrov: I heard a recent statement by President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. He said, as everyone knows, that Belarusian and Russian intelligence agencies and other law-enforcement bodies were closely cooperating on a permanent basis. He emphasised that he was ready to continue. He said he discussed this with President Vladimir Putin. They remain in touch. Therefore, we have this capability as far as Russian-Belarusian cooperation is concerned. Moreover, Belarus keeps a close eye on the developments in Ukraine. There is a Ukrainian army group stationed along the border with Belarus, posing a permanent threat to this country’s security. I do not know any other proposals on cooperation.
If something was done or some information was passed via through intelligence agencies, it was never publicised. I sincerely doubt that someone would offer cooperation.
You mentioned Interpol. This is a unique situation. I double-checked my words that Interpol has never offered to investigate high-profile crimes before. This is indeed the case. It did not do this as regards Nord Stream pipelines or terrorist attacks in Russia in the early 2000s. Interpol has never demonstrated this kind of zeal before.
Meanwhile, this time it offered its services literally several hours after the Americans and the Europeans declared that Ukraine had nothing to do with the attack. We will cope with it ourselves. It is very unfortunate but the Western employees in the secretariats of international agencies that are designed to be neutral and unbiased are increasingly privatising them. This happens with these agencies across all sectors, including forensics, law enforcement, sports, culture – you name it.
We are seeing the same situation with the UN. It has the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions. They emphasised in their latest annual report that domination of Westerners in the structures of the Secretariat is unacceptable. It is necessary to counter this trend rather than just take into consideration. This is what we are doing.
Question: Does this mean that we are on the brink of a no less global threat than a third world war because countries fail to work together? There is a lot more interaction going on among terrorists, compared to the international community.
Sergey Lavrov: Many talk about this. They directly use the term of “a third world war.” President of Russia Vladimir Putin has responded to these Western statements on multiple occasions. Our position was described in abundantly clear terms. We are ready to engage in talks, as long as they are serious about it, and if they take into consideration the reality and lawful security interests of the Russian Federation and other countries which are involved. Our President made it very clear.
You may recall how this issue developed, in particular, as regards NATO. Initially, before the start of the special military operation and immediately afterwards, the West unanimously called for Ukraine to be admitted into NATO as soon as possible because Russia would never attack a NATO member. As time went by, they changed the tune. Now they are saying that Russia must not be allowed to win in Ukraine because as soon as it wins it will attack NATO countries. There is no logic in this at all.
Only yesterday, speaking in the Tver Region, President Vladimir Putin again dismissed as nonsense all this discourse about us hatching some invasion plans. These allegations have only one purpose – to compel the parliaments and people of Europe to reconcile with the desire of the EU and the European Commission to continue sending more weapons to Ukraine. Meanwhile, Europe is one of the main victims in this conflict.
Take economic performance data for the EU and US over the past year. You will see immediately who is living at whose expense and who is profiting on the policy imposed on Europe by Washington. The United States is moving into the background altogether, leaving it to the European Union to play first fiddle.
To be continued…
Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs Russia
