Lavrov's Detailed Explanation About Ukraine and the Hybrid War--Again

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's remarks at the embassy roundtable on settling the situation around Ukraine

The Gaza Genocide has taken global prominence as it should, but the Ukraine conflict which shares some attributes with the events in Gaza is still ongoing. As Lavrov notes, this is the second such meeting in this format, the first being held last September 15th and is linked to within the opening paragraph. Lavrov’s again reviews the overall situation but doesn’t get into the fine, intricate details of it all. Some will read of new revelations, but or most this is a review. More would be revealed if the ensuing discussion between those present was provided. Now here’s Lavrov’s address:

Ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you for accepting our invitation to hold a second meeting in the same format on the events unfolding around the Ukrainian crisis and on the large number of speculations that we oppose with facts. I hope it will be useful for you to hear our point of view today. I'm sure you know her. We would like to talk about the "sanctions problem" in a general way.

The war unleashed against us by the West with the hands of Ukraine and the bodies of Ukrainians is a hybrid war, in which a special role is assigned to illegal unilateral restrictive measures – "sanctions". As far as Russia is concerned, their number is unprecedented and has exceeded 17,000. The goals are not hidden: to undermine the Russian economy and force the political leadership to abandon an independent line in foreign affairs, to turn the population against the authorities. This is a stated goal. When the problems of unilateral restrictive measures are discussed in general terms, the West always swears that it pursues a policy in which sanctions do not target the civilian population. This is a lie. That's exactly what they're doing. They set themselves the task of provoking riots and rousing the people against the authorities. The West pursues such a policy in many countries. Ambassadors and embassy staff present here are probably aware of such examples in relation to their own states.

That nothing would come of this policy, aimed at undermining the Russian economy and social sphere, was clear from the very beginning to those with experience. I think that this is now clear to everyone, including the initiators of the sanctions and illegal actions. Our economy (President Vladimir Putin cited numerous statistics on this matter) has adapted to the sanctions. It demonstrates high stability. GDP growth by the end of 2023 will be close to three percent (2.8-2.9). In the leading economies of Europe, it is in the red. This is to understand who is most affected by the sanctions, which are inspired and escalated primarily by Washington.

The United States is ruining its European vassals and allowing its military-industrial complex to earn money, has imposed and continues to impose expensive American liquefied natural gas on the EU, and is forcing European companies to move their enterprises overseas with its selfish laws, where the basic costs of business are lower. Forcing the European Union to abandon everything Russian, Washington continues to buy uranium and other "critical" materials from Russia. Over the past year and a half, according to modest, conservative estimates, European businesses have lost up to 250 billion euros due to Western unilateral sanctions. That's a big number.

Western sanctions against Russia have exacerbated the crisis phenomena of the world economy. It is the illegal restrictions, rather than Russia's actions to protect people in Ukraine from the Nazi regime, that are exacerbating the imbalances created even earlier as a result of systemic mistakes in the macroeconomic policy of Western countries during the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and the acceleration of the course towards a "green" transformation without taking into account the specifics and basic indicators of the economic development of most countries in the world.

We are well aware that the sanctions imposed on us will not go away in the foreseeable and distant future. This is what their authors say. To be honest, we don't need to. Not because we choose isolationism or autarky. Not at all. It is because the West has decided to destroy the world economy in order to teach Russia a lesson and prevent it from playing a role in the international arena that befits its history, size and capabilities. To prevent Russia from standing up for the Russian people who have lived for centuries in the lands where the Ukrainian regime, after the coup d'état in 2014, has set up a policy of exterminating (including physically) Russian people, but also by law everything Russian: literature, culture, art, language and education. That's why we made our choice. President of Russia Vladimir Putin has spoken about this many times. From now on, we will rely exclusively on ourselves to ensure the security and sustainable development of society in critical areas. During the period of sanctions, we have formed a potential for the development of industrial production and the creation of critically important technologies. A special law on high technologies is currently being prepared. At the external level, we are not only proceeding from the need to form, but also to create a mechanism for servicing trade, laying new transport corridors and establishing supply chains that are not subject to any harmful and malicious influence from the outside.

The widespread use of national currencies in international settlements has become a sign of the times, and a gradual and steady decline in the share of the dollar and the euro has been recorded.

According to IMF statistics, the largest economies, including China, India, Turkey, the UAE, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Egypt, Kenya, and a number of ASEAN countries, are involved in the process of transition to national currencies. At the initiative of the presidents of Argentina and Brazil, work has begun on the creation of a monetary union between the two countries, and in the future, the entire MERCOSUR bloc. A similar approach to the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States is even mentioned. Among the "locomotives" of de-dollarization, we see such associations as the EAEU and the CIS. Within these structures, the share of national currencies has reached 85-90 percent. Trade with China is reaching approximately the same level.

In August of this year, at the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, the issue was raised, primarily by our Brazilian colleagues, of establishing a common unit of account in addition to national currencies. It was decided to instruct finance ministers and central bank governors to study this idea and present proposals for alternative payment platforms at the next summit in 2024 in Kazan, when Russia will chair the Organization.

I would like to note the decision taken by the ASEAN heads of government and state in May of this year. They signed a declaration on the promotion of settlements in local currencies and the integration of regional payment systems. There are many more examples. We are only at the beginning of a long journey. The processes of de-dollarization will gain momentum more and more actively.

Another factor in the sustainable development of the world economy is stability in the global energy market. After the start of the special military operation, the United States and its Western satellites tried to present the situation as if it was our actions that provoked the global energy crisis. However, professionals are well aware that this is another lie. In fact, the reason for the negative phenomena was the irresponsible actions of the "collective West". He decided to force the "green transition" at home and impose it on other countries that were not economically ready for it. As part of the green transition, it has drastically limited investment in the oil and gas sector and abandoned traditional fuels.

The announced boycott of Russian energy resources, unilateral sanctions and anti-market measures, in particular the notorious price ceiling, have dealt a serious blow to global energy security. These steps have led to the disruption of historically established production and household chains, the redistribution of global energy flows, and an increase in transaction and logistics costs.

In addition to these gross macroeconomic miscalculations, such phenomena as the terrorist attacks on Nord Stream in the Baltic Sea have been added, thereby finally undermining Europe's hopes that cheap gas will one day return and stimulate its economy as before. In return, they get an American one, which is expensive and has a fairly negative carbon footprint. It's their choice. They have submitted to the hegemon and must draw conclusions from this (if they are still able to do so).

As for Nord Stream, we still cannot get a clear answer as to who is investigating this terrorist attack and how. More than a year has passed, and neither Germany, nor Norway, nor Sweden, which are engaged in investigations at the national level, can tell us anything intelligible and sane. This has already become a "brand" of the West: when situations arise in which, as we say, they "snout in the cannon", they "wrap up" any information on this topic in every possible way.

I'll digress from the economy. Let's recall what was presented to the whole world after Russian servicemen left the Kyiv suburb of Bucha in March 2022. We were not there for more than two days, the local authorities were already working, proudly declaring on television that "they are back, and Bucha is free." Then, almost three days later, not somewhere in the basement, but on the main street of the city, the corpses of people in clean clothes, neatly laid out along the road, were shown. They said that this was done by Russian servicemen. Under this, another package of sanctions was announced.

Since then (a year and a half has passed), no one says a word about what kind of investigation is being conducted and by whom. We have twice officially asked Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the UN Security Council whether it is possible for the UN to take care of investigating this crime against the Russian Federation.

We are already desperate to get information on how the investigation is going (if at all). We still cannot get an answer to the elementary question – is it possible to announce the names of those whose bodies were shown to the whole world on television and the Internet? We can't even do that. They "thwarted" the necessary external effect, got a pretext for new sanctions, but carefully hid their lies so deep that no one would get to the bottom of them.

Our appeal and demand to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is to use his authority to deal with at least this issue, with the list of people whose bodies have been presented to the world. This requirement remains in force. I think that the UN cannot shirk its responsibility in these matters. Especially now, when the problems of international humanitarian law have been exacerbated to the breaking point by what is happening in the Middle East.

In general, we are engaged in reforms in our fuel and energy complex. We are strengthening the sovereignty of this industry: technological, human and financial. A new geography of exports with good results has been formed and is being effectively mastered. In a short time, it was possible to switch the supply of oil, gas and coal to fast-growing and promising markets, primarily India, China and other countries of the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America. We know that supplies from Russia allow our partners to curb the rise in energy prices and thereby strengthen their economic stability.

There is a lot of talk about global food security. Once again, they blame us for the "coming global famine", once again turning everything upside down, trying to "sweep under the carpet" the latest facts, when at the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States, Japan and Europe printed trillions of fiat money, bought up all the food in the expectation that COVID-19 would force everyone to "shut down" and thereby created an acute crisis in the global food market.

Now that we are being accused, I recommend that our Western colleagues, who are still engaged in this, familiarize themselves with the UN data, according to which there is currently no shortage of food on the market. According to FAO, world food prices have fallen by almost 200% since March 25 to their lowest levels. Now they are approximately at the level of 2021. In their opinion, there are currently no crisis phenomena in the production and trade of grains.

As for food, you all know about the fate of Mr Guterres' Black Sea Initiative, which consisted of package agreements. The first "package" is Ukrainian, the second is Russian. Ukrainian was carried out properly. But only 3% of the food supplied to world markets went to countries on the World Food Programme's list. The lion's share went to Europe and other markets of prosperous wealthy countries. The fact that the West unleashed such a hysterical campaign when we withdrew from the Black Sea Initiative, in which the Russian part of the "package" did not move at all, can be explained simply: more than a third of Ukraine's fertile land has been bought up by American food companies that make money from it. They worry that food from Ukraine has become more difficult to deliver to global markets, and their profits are declining accordingly.

Our part of the "package" is absolutely at zero. We see the efforts of Mr Guterres and UNCTAD Secretary-General Robert Greenspan. But these efforts have yielded nothing. The West stubbornly, looking into the eyes of the staff of the UN Secretariat, declares that no sanctions have been imposed against food and fertilizers from Russia. This is another example of Western lies.

An outrageous example: more than a year has passed since we announced that fertilisers owned by a Russian company in European ports (a total of 200,000 tonnes) are being donated to countries in need. Since then, it has taken almost six months to ship the first batch of such fertilizers to Malawi, Kenya. For more than a year, we have not been able to do anything with the shipment of the relevant consignments to Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and other countries. This problem is obvious and shows the reluctance of the West to do anything for developing countries if it has anything to do with Russia. But at the same time, it shows (I don't want to pronounce this word) the helplessness of the United Nations, which we have repeatedly asked to solve this problem, to force European countries to unblock our fertilizers in their ports.

In addition to our efforts, I would like to remind you that President Vladimir Putin has decided to supply 200,000 tonnes of wheat free of charge to six African countries (Somalia, the Central African Republic, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali and Eritrea). We are ready to answer any questions when someone accuses us of the negative consequences of our actions for the global economy. But only have an honest conversation.

Now they have presented data and estimates. We are responsible for every word and number. They rely on the data of objective, professional experts.

The readout published by the MFA provides a synopsis and some more information:

On November 8, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with ambassadors from the Global South accredited in Moscow during a roundtable discussion on the Ukrainian crisis. Illegal Sanctions and the World Economy" organized by the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

In his speech, the Minister noted the ongoing systemic rethinking and reformatting of world economic relations against the backdrop of cardinal changes of a geopolitical nature. The West's attempts to make Russia the culprit of the negative processes that are now being observed in the world economy were exposed. It was emphasized that among the main reasons for the current imbalances are systemic mistakes in the macroeconomic policy of Western countries, including those related to the elimination of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of the course for the forced "green" transformation of the economy, as well as the course of the United States and its satellites for a total curtailment of trade and economic ties with Russia and technological cooperation with China. At the same time, it was emphasized that it is Washington that is both the main destructive force of the sustainable development of the world economy and the main beneficiary of the consequences of destructive processes in it.

Sergey Lavrov also answered a number of questions from the participants of the round table, focusing on the negative impact of Western sanctions on global economic processes, ensuring food security, the volatility of global energy markets and its causes, and attempts to use energy as an instrument of pressure.

Following the discussion with the ambassadors of a number of countries in the Global South, they expressed interest in continuing the exchange of views with the leadership of the Russian Foreign Ministry on the most important issues of world politics and the economy.

The most important point made must be repeated again:

[I]t was emphasized that it is Washington that is both the main destructive force of the sustainable development of the world economy and the main beneficiary of the consequences of destructive processes in it.

It’s clear this was made explicit as a direct follow-up to President Putin’s words spoken at the October 30 Security Council meeting where evidence was provided to support the conclusion that the Outlaw US Empire is THE source of the vast majority of the world’s ills, which includes not just Ukraine, but the Gaza Genocide too. The aim appears to gather together the Global South, Global Majority nations so a united front can be formed to face down the Outlaw US Empire and its few vassals, not just over Ukraine but especially over Gaza. Since Russia didn’t share the discussion between Lavrov and his team with those attending the meeting, it must be assumed they are being kept secret for a reason.

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