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Russian FM: Had the coup in February 2014 not happened, Crimea would have remained part of Ukraine

Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation

06 December 2024 11:02 (UTC +04:00)

"Had the coup in February 2014 not happened and the deal which was reached the day before between the then president and the opposition implemented, Ukraine would have stayed one piece by now with Crimea in it," Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov said in an interview to Tucker Carlson, APA's Moscow correspondent reports.

Speaking of Russia's main conditions for a peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian conflict, Lavrov noted that Moscow's main conditions are "No NATO. Absolutely. No military bases, no military exercises on the Ukrainian soil with participation of foreign troops."

Answering the question "Do you believe the United States and Russia are at war with each other right now?" Lavrov answered: "I wouldn't say so. And in any case, this is not what we want. We would like to have normal relations with all our neighbors, of course, but generally with all countries especially with the great country like the United States. And President Vladimir Putin repeatedly expressed his respect for the American people, for the American history, for the American achievements in the world, and we don't see any reason why Russia and the United States cannot cooperate for the sake of the universe."

He noted that US and Russia are not at war: "But what is going on in Ukraine is that some people call it hybrid war. I would call it hybrid war as well, but it is obvious that the Ukrainians would not be able to do what they're doing with long-range modern weapons without direct participation of the American servicemen. And this is dangerous, no doubt about this.

We don't want to aggravate the situation, but since ATACMS and other long-range weapons are being used against mainland Russia as it were, we are sending signals. We hope that the last one, a couple of weeks ago, the signal with the new weapon system called Oreshnik was taken seriously.

However, we also know that some officials in the Pentagon and in other places, including NATO, started saying in the last few days something like that NATO is a defensive alliance, but sometimes you can strike first because the attack is the best defense. Some others in STRATCOM, Thomas Buchanan is his name, representative of STRATCOM, said something which allows for an eventuality of exchange of limited nuclear strikes.

And this kind of threats are really worrying. Because if they are following the logic which some Westerners have been pronouncing lately, that don't believe that Russia has red lines, they announced their red lines, these red lines are being moved again and again. This is a very serious mistake. That's what I would like to say in response to this question."

Answering the question "What do you think of Donald Trump?" Lavrov stated: "I met him several times when he was having meetings with President Putin and when he received me twice in the Oval Office when I was visiting for bilateral talks.

Well, I think he's a very strong person. A person who wants results. Who doesn't like procrastination on anything. This is my impression. He's very friendly in discussions. But this does not mean that he's pro-Russian as some people try to present him. The amount of sanctions we received under the Trump administration was very big.

We respect any choice which is made by the people when they vote. We respect the choice of American people. As President Putin said, we are and we have been open all along to the contacts with the current administration. We hope that when Donald Trump is inaugurated, we will understand. The ball, as President Putin said, is on their side. We never severed our contacts, our ties in the economy, trade, security, anything."