What drumpf's friends think: Russian minister: West out of step, can't accept its decline

[mfcorey1]

UNITED NATIONS (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 U.N. General Assembly, Sergei Lavrov blamed the countries that declared themselves winners of the Cold War between the U.S. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. allegations that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

At a news conference after his speech, Lavrov called the current dispute over the phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy “overblown,” and strongly denied U.S. 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.”

https://www.apnews.com/a06d6c6183d648c5bbbfd56a7fbfe363