MOSCOW, April 24 (RIA Novosti) – The West continues to undermine collaboration with Russia in favor of a policy aimed at restraining Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday.
“The spirit of partnership, like the serious work on creating a climate of honest trust on our continent, was sacrificed for the policy of restraining our country, from which the West never stopped,” Lavrov said at the Global University Forum 2014.
In an English-language interview with the RT TV channel Wednesday, Lavrov said the visit of US Vice President Joseph Biden to Kiev and the subsequent restart of a military operation against protesters demonstrated Washington’s control over the actions of Ukrainian authorities. “So I don’t have any reasons not to believe that the Americans are running the show in a very close way,” Lavrov commented.
US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki denied the allegations, and US President Barack Obama has accused Russia of failing to comply with the Geneva Accords reached last week in an attempt to de-escalate the crisis in Ukraine.
Last Sunday, a group of unknown gunmen killed at least three people in an attack on a checkpoint near the eastern Ukrainian city of Slaviansk. The Russian Foreign Ministry denounced the attack as a “provocation,” which pointed to Kiev's reluctance to disarm nationalists and extremists.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday accused the coup-imposed Kiev government of failing to comply with the April 17 accord reached in Geneva, calling on the sides in the standoff to refrain from violence.
