Russia slams US, says meddling claims ‘baseless’
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday trashed accusations of Russian meddling abroad as “baseless” and used the podium at the United Nation’s biggest event to tear into United States’ policies in Iran, Syria and Venezuela, then later declared that US-Russian relations “are bad and probably at their all-time low.”
In a rapid-fire, unforgiving speech on Friday, Lavrov pounded away at “self-serving” unilateral moves by US President Donald Trump and assailed crippling Western sanctions against Russia as “political blackmail.”
Lavrov deflected accusations of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, a nerve agent attack in Britain and other meddling abroad – despite mounting evidence of a broad, coordinated influence campaign.
He criticized “baseless accusations of interference in the internal affairs of certain countries” and turned it around against the West, accusing unnamed forces of “overt endeavors to undermine democratically elected governments,” in an apparent reference to US and European Union support for Russia’s neighbors and the Syrian opposition.
Lavrov expanded on that at a news conference later, giving examples of US interference that included the US envoy for Ukraine, Kurt Volcker, promoting efforts to replace the 2015 agreement reached by leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany to end the violence in eastern Ukraine.
He also cited the case of Maria Butina, who has pleaded not guilty to US charges that she tried to infiltrate US political organizations as a covert Russian agent. Russia has called her jailing “preposterous.”
In his UN address, Lavrov was particularly angry over US and EU sanctions over Russia’s actions abroad, saying, “We see the desire of several Western nations to preserve their selfproclaimed status as world leaders... and do not hesitate to use any methods including political blackmail, economic pressure and brute force.”
He defended the 2015 deal aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program and said “we will do everything possible” to preserve it. Lavrov called Trump’s decision to pull out of the deal part of a dangerous trend of unilateral measures that risk damaging the post-World War II world order.