Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking today at the “Government Hour” in the State Duma, made some comments on the latest initiatives of the United States in the context of the growing tension between the countries.

The Power of Weapons

The Russian diplomat clearly defined what caused “the change in the tone of the dialogue between the West and Russia.

Lavrov said that the reason for this was the “colossal breakthrough” of the military-industrial complex of Russia.

“When the MIC made a colossal breakthrough, when the Russian armed forces became what they are now, the tone of the conversation with us changed.

This does not mean that you have to rely on brute force in everything, but as they say in the American proverb: they start talking to you more politely when the colt is in your pocket,” said the head of Russian diplomacy.

One-sided benefits

Assessing the general trend of U. S. leadership, the Russian foreign minister said that the U. S. goal is to secure unilateral advantages for itself without taking into account the interests of other countries.

“The Westerners, led by the United States, are trying to oppose the objective course of history, trying to secure for themselves unilateral advantages without much regard for the interests of others, and in fact without any regard at all.

And without regard to the legitimate interests of all the other countries,” the diplomat said, RIA Novosti.

Lavrov noted the aggressive rhetoric of “imposing on the world community its own vision of the structure of international life. Lavrov noted that all this is presented as “the need to establish and respect a rule-based order.

“Under this concept, the West arrogates to itself the right to develop rules in a variety of areas, completely ignoring the principle of genuine universal multilateralism, which is embodied in the United Nations, and thus undermining international law and the UN-centric architecture of international relations,” said the Russian Foreign Minister.

A departure from the culture of diplomacy

Sergey Lavrov noted that the U. S. side deviates from the traditions of diplomacy and stressed that at present the U. S. and its European allies are demonstrating a strengthening of containment of Russia:

“Recently, the U. S. and its European allies, thoroughly oblivious to the culture of diplomacy, have been redoubling their efforts to contain our country,” he said.

Creating a negative image of Russia

Lavrov is convinced that one of the goals of the West is to create a negative image of Russia and undermine the authority of Russian culture in the world.

“I wouldn‘t use the term ‘famous Russian soft power. ‘

The Soviet power was hard-soft – hard is known in what, soft – ballet, above all, our sports, of course, art, culture . .

Now under this concept and strategy of containment of Russia in anything and everything, along with the PRC, the West is not just trying to tax us with its aggressive allies, not just pumping them with weapons . . they are still trying to undermine the position and authority of Russian culture, that very soft power,” Lavrov said in his speech at the State Duma.

The Russian diplomat recalled U. S. attempts to use the media war to force countries and continents away from interaction with Russia.

“They are trying to dissuade countries on all continents from having any business with us,” Lavrov added.