MOSCOW, September 28 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Sunday that the United States are building ‘power verticals’ on the international scene to define what “music the international orchestra will play.”
"We are discussing from time to time in Russia if it is good or bad to build ‘power verticals’. A lot of answers to this question have been given. We have a huge country that was on the verge of collapse after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was necessary to improve the situation, to unite the lands," Lavrov said in an interview to Russia’s Channel 5 broadcaster.
However, according to the Russian minister, “no one has been using the term [power vertical] in relation to the international arena, but, in fact, Americans are doing exactly this – [they are] building the ’verticals of power’ on the international scene, but without any apparent reasons for such move and, in my opinion, [they are doing it] only to confirm that they are the only ones to define what ‘music the international orchestra will play'."
This is a clear sign that Washington is currently going through a ‘withdrawal’ phase, Lavrov believes.
“They [the United States] are still the most powerful state militarily, but not like they used to be; it is still the strongest nation financially, but China is ‘at the back of the pack’; and they are far from being able to single-handedly make all decisions for everyone as they are used to,” the diplomat said.
"This is not a criticism, but a statement of a fact. This is a great human drama for people involved in politics and for those who are used to act in the same coordinate system. Suddenly everything has changed and the ‘end of history’ that had been predicted did not come," Lavrov.
Lavrov also stressed that the Western civilization has to a large extent failed to establish its dominance in the world. Other countries are flourishing economically and financially and it is followed by their growing political influence, the minister added.
