Displaying his deep Soviet KGB roots, 67-year-old Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov shows why Russian influence in print, on the air-waves and the Internet must be taken seriously. How much Russia influenced the 2016 presidential election is anyone’s guess. What’s known for sure is that Russian propagandists continue to advance their anti-American agenda to the third world or anyone listening to the endless falsehoods flowing from the Kremlin. Lavrov blasted the U.S. for “dictating and putting forward uttimatums,” blaming the U.S. for bullying countries around the globe. But Lavrov forgets that it was the Russian Federation that invaded and seized Crimea from the Ukraine March 1, 2014. It was the Russian Federation that seized Abkhazia and South Ossetia from Georgia Aug. 12, 2008, while former President George W. Bush and the U.N. looked on.
Lavrov’s unending propaganda largely goes unnoticed as he delivers more distortions, lies and falsehoods to anti-American countries around the globe. “The methods they [the U.S.] resort to contain their rivals, are for the most part, rather dubious and unscrupulous,” Lavrov told the Russian press at his annual press conference. “Their range is wide—from deploying a global missile defense system to unilateral sanctions, extraterritorial use of their legislation and threats to tackle any international issues in accordance with their own scenario exclusively, stopping at nothing, including the use of brute military force,” said Lavrov. It’s Moscow, not the U.S., that intimidates its neighbors, placing Russian troops and heavy artillery on the Ukrainian border or anywhere else the Kremlin has vested interests. When Lavrov talks of unilateral sanctions, he forgets that seizing Crimea created the sanctions.
Lavrov would have you believe that Russia has done nothing wrong taking sovereign territory from Ukraine and Georgia. Russian President Vladimir Putin had his reasons for invading Crimea March 1, 2014, when a pro-Western coup drove Kremlin-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich out of Kiev April 22, 2014. Putin had his reasons for invading Georgia Aug. 7, 2008, seizing sovereign Georgia territory. Yet Lavrov blames the U.S. for delivering missile defense to its NATO allies terrified, especially in the Baltics or Poland, where Russia could invade at any time. Lavrov doesn’t want U.S.-made Terminal High Altitude Area Defense [THAAD] deployed anywhere because it renders Moscow’s threats less potent. Just like the good old days in Southeast Asia, Lavrov panders to economically weak countries looking to Moscow to bail them out.
Lavrov blames Trump for his strong stand on North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un for developing a nuclear-tipped Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. It was Lavrov who said Sept. 25 that Trump would not attack Pyongyang because it’s a nuclear-armed state. Lavrov contradicted Putin who said Dec. 14 at his annual press conference that Russian does not accept North Korea as a nuclear state. “The United States and its allies are destabilizing the world by continually attempting to settle global issues through “dictating and putting forward ultimatums,” Lavrov said. Yet it’s Russia, not the U.S., that settles disputes by rolling in its army. Lavrov raises the North Korean questions but doesn’t admit that North Korean has threatened the U.S. and its allies with nuclear annihilation. While calling the U.S. his “partner,” Lavrov paints the U.S. as the world’s gravest threat.
Russia propaganda, like all totalitarian regimes, turns reality upside down, blaming the U.S. for Russia’s many indiscretions, especially when it comes to military aggression. “Unfortunately, our U.S. colleagues and their allies . . . do not want to listen to the point of view of the other centers of global politics,” said Lavrov, referring to the Kremlin’s center-of-influence. “They do not want to recognize the realities of the forming multi-polar world,” by that, Lavrov means a world controlled by the Kremlin with its many satellites. Trump presents a problem for Moscow because he sees through Kremlin propaganda, holding the Kremlin accountable for global hot spots around the globe. When it comes to North Korea, Trump won’t let the Kremlin dictate U.S. foreign policy, especially whether or not to accept Pyongyang as a nuclear state, something Lavrov accepted Sept. 25.
Lavrov’s pernicious propaganda is aimed at discrediting the U.S., especially in the third world where the Kremlin offers guns-and-butter to gain influence. When it comes to the West, Moscow’s been upbraided by the European Union, especially German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who sees clearly what Putin’s up to. Lavrov appeals to U.S. enemies ready to join the Kremlin’s growing coalition of third world countries ready to form alliances against the U.S. Lavrov offers nothing constructive on what to do to disarm North Korea of its nukes and ballistic missiles. His message to Trump is accept North Korea as a nuclear state, avoid confrontation. Everything Lavrov says is wrong with the U.S. is the exact blueprint for how the Kremlin conducts business on the world stage: Pernicious propaganda and military domination. Lavrov shows why the U.S. must watch Moscow closely.
