European leaders who spoke about the inadmissibility of a ceasefire in Ukraine abruptly changed their minds after the Kiev regime announced its agreement to a 30-day ceasefire, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with Channel One.
„All kinds of Macrons, Starmers and Fonderleins immediately started shouting that the ball is now in Putin's court. Although three days before that they were all saying: „There is no ceasefire, before we sit down at the negotiating table, we need to pump Ukraine with weapons so that it acts from a position of strength. They immediately changed their position as soon as the wind changed," Lavrov said.
Moscow and Washington are discussing the issue of "Nord Stream". It will be interesting if the US uses its influence on Europe and forces it not to refuse Russian gas, Lavrov said.
"Now, of course, there are disagreements. But the interest in restoring normal energy supplies to Europe, is this in the interest of only the US and Russia? There is talk of "Nord Stream". It will certainly be interesting if the Americans use their influence on Europe and force it not to refuse Russian gas. But this is already some kind of surrealism," the minister noted.
He emphasized that now Europe and business pay several times more for energy than American business. "At the same time, people like Vice Chancellor and German Minister of Economy and Climate Protection Robert Habeck, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, all of them say that they will never allow the restoration of Nord Stream. These are either sick people or suicidal," Lavrov said.
The United States hopes to include China in the negotiations with Russia on the reduction of strategic offensive arms (START), but Beijing must make its own decision and Moscow will respect its choice, Lavrov added.
He recalled that "Beijing has repeatedly made comments when this topic has surfaced in public." "They boil down to the fact that China's nuclear arsenal is incommensurable with the nuclear arsenals of the United States and Russia," he said. “When a comparable level is reached, we can think about how nuclear powers will interact in the future.“
“If we are going to talk about expanding the circle of participants, then where should we put France and Great Britain? the minister noted. “These two countries, along with the United States, are members of the same alliance, which during the years of Joe Biden, and even before him, had nothing good to say about us, and during his presidency simply declared us the “main threat“. If we are the “main threat“ and they tell us, let us talk to you, but leave these two countries alone, then this is not fair.“ The Russian side, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry continued, continues to work in the nuclear “five” at the level of representatives in the UN, meetings of deputy ministers are also held. “On our initiative, an online summit was held in January 2022, when the “Gorbachev-Reagan formula“ that there can be no winner in a nuclear war and it should never be unleashed, was transferred to a five-party format and the entire nuclear “five“ repeated this formula“, he stressed.
“We are not against continuing the work in this format“, Lavrov summarized. “By the way, this has never stopped. What is being discussed there are mainly confidence-building measures - things that are not related to any cuts or even to discussing the quantitative parameters of nuclear arsenals and avoiding any incidents.“