‘West out of step, can’t accept decline’

Russian FM slams disseminating false information

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 28, (AP): Russia’s foreign minister took aim at the West on Friday, saying its philosophies are out of step with the times and that it is struggling to accept what he called its diminishing dominance in world affairs.

In his speech before the UN General Assembly, Sergei Lavrov blamed the countries that declared themselves winners of the Cold War between the US and the former Soviet Union for the current challenges facing the world, and for the increasing fragmentation of the international community.

He pointedly scorned much of the “West,” a term Russian officials typically use to refer to the United States and its traditional allies in Europe. He accused them of manipulating their citizens, disseminating false information, and preventing journalists from doing their work - all charges that the West has long lobbed at the Russian government and its predecessor, the Soviet Union.

“It is hard for the West to accept seeing its centuries-long dominance in world affairs diminishing,” Lavrov said. “Leading Western countries are trying to impede the development of the polycentric world, to recover their privileged positions, to impose standards of conduct based on the narrow Western interpretation of liberalism on others.”

The relationship between Russia and the US has been deteriorating for years. The two countries are at odds on many issues internationally, from Iran’s nuclear program to Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea to the war in Syria. Relations frayed even further amid US allegations that Russia interfered in the 2016 US presidential election.

At a news conference after his speech, Lavrov called the current dispute

Lanka’s governing party on Thursday named its charismatic deputy leader, Sajith Premadasa, as its candidate in November’s presidential election, ending a long tussle with the party leader, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, over the nomination.

The United National Party’s official Twitter account said a working committee endorsed the 52-year-old Premadasa.

Premadasa is the son of former Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa, who was assassinated by now-defeated Tamil Tiger separatists in 1993.

Wickremesinghe retained the party leadership, but his prominence both within the party over the phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy “overblown,” and strongly denied US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s claim that Russia is involved.

“The American political class,” he said, almost daily accuses Russia “of all cardinal sins.”

Trump’s phone call withr Zelenskiy, in which the American president is alleged to have sought help from Ukraine to win next year’s election, is at the center of a House impeachment probe.

Lavrov’s comments came in response to an interview Pelosi gave earlier Friday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe show in which she said, without elaborating, that “I think Russia has a hand in this, by the way.”

Released

Lavrov, responding to a question on whether conversations between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin should be released, quoted his own mother who told him as a boy that reading other people’s letters is “indecent.”

He said diplomatic contacts are supposed to have “a certain level of confidentiality,” and asked: “How can you work in such conditions” if communications are released?

Lavrov held wide-ranging talks with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo before his speech and said he proposed additional channels of cooperation including between US and Russian businessmen and entrepreneurs, and establishing “an expert council of outstanding statesmen, former military and diplomats and intelligence services.”

The Russian minister said he also proposed a missile moratorium and action on other arms control issues. And

and the government is likely to wane with a victory for Premadasa in the presidential election.

Premadasa’s nomination gives a new face to the party, which has long been considered pro-West, pro-capitalist and distant from the grassroots. It will also give the party a nationalistic appearance, with Premadasa presenting himself as a devout Buddhist Sinhalese compared to Wickremesinghe’s liberal and pro-West outlook. (AP)

Afghan voters defy attacks:

Launches Afghans braved the threat of militant attacks and delays at polling booths to vote in a

French urban climber Alain Robert, well known as ‘Spiderman’, is escorted by police officers after climbing the ‘Skyper’ highrise in Frankfurt, Germany on Sept

28. (AP)

he warned that “the United States is setting course for transforming cyberspace and outer space into an arena for military confrontation.”

Lavrov accused the West of maintaining a double standard: promoting liberal values where they’re convenient but discarding them when they’re not. “When it is advantageous, the right of the peoples to self-determination has significance. And when it is not, it is declared ‘illegal’,” he said.

To maintain this double standard, Western nations manipulate their citizens and media, he said - and “impede the development of the polycentric world.”

Turning to global crises, Lavrov criticized NATO’s decision to attack Libya, which he said split the country apart. He said the West “has its own rules in the Balkans” as well. And under Western intervention, he said, Venezuela’s “statehood was destroyed before our eyes.”

Lavrov said the Americans view all aspects of the Middle East and North Africa through an “Iranian prism, as if they’re consciously trying to find more reasons in order to try to support their hard-to-support statements saying Iran is the main source of evil in that region, and all bad things come from Iran.”

Russia has proposed an initiative for collective security cooperation in the Arabian Gulf, which he called “overripened now.”

But he said more and more countries in the region are starting to think about how to de-escalate the situation.

“That speaks in favor of the ideas that we are promoting,” Lavrov said. “They’ll be in demand. They are very simple, to sit down at the negotiating table and start speaking to each other without using the mouthpieces of mass media.”

presidential election on Saturday, a major test of the Western-backed government’s ability to protect democracy against Taleban attempts to derail it. The election was marred by numerous small-scale Taleban attacks, but only one confirmed death. Turnout was low, however, with the violence – plus earlier Taleban threats against polling stations – likely contributing factors.

Voting was extended by two hours, as the start of polling was delayed around the country with stations failing to open on time amid technical problems.

Independent election observers and activists said a slow pace to voting triggered confusion at some polling stations, with long queues forming outside.

“It took the first voter 31 minutes to vote. For subsequent voters it was taking around five minutes and then it started to streamline to 3 minutes and 30 seconds,” said Nishank Motwani, an observer stationed in Kabul.

“Election commission staff looked panicked and voters were getting angry that the queue was not moving.”

A dozen candidates are vying for the presidency, led by incumbent Ashraf Ghani and his former deputy Abdullah Abdullah. Due to logistical difficulties, results will not be known until Nov 7. The winner will play a crucial role in the country’s quest to end the war with the Taleban and any resumption of talks between them and the United States that were called off this month.

To protect voters and polling stations, tens of thousands of troops were deployed.

Abdul Moqim Abdulrahimzai, director-general of operations and planning at the Interior Ministry, said at least 21 civilians and two Afghan forces were injured in about a dozen small-scale attacks during the first hours of voting. Other attacks had been foiled, he said.

A senior Western security official in Kabul said the Taleban had not conducted largescale attacks but had scared some voters away. (RTRS)