Lavrov says West seeks to partition Russia, open up new war fronts

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says the West aims to divide Russia, accusing it of raising tensions with Moscow and seeking to “open up” new war fronts.

“The goal of partitioning of the Russian Federation has been already openly declared by many political scientists and politicians,” Lavrov said during his visit to a Russian military base in Tajikistan on Monday.

He added that Western countries are trying to provoke Russia in new regions, including Central Asia and South Caucasus after they managed to incite Kiev to escalate the conflict with Moscow.

“It is remarkable that, having unleashed the Ukrainian regime and continuing to inundate it with the most advanced weapons, the West is constantly looking for additional areas where it can irritate the Russian Federation, opening up the second and third fronts.”

The war between Russia and Ukraine began in February 2022, with the US-led NATO’s eastward expansion blamed for it.

Russia views the alliance’s efforts to make Ukraine a member and to deploy missiles close to its borders as a direct threat to Russian territory.

The West has supplied Ukraine with tens of billions of dollars worth of various weaponry since the onset of the Russian military campaign, in defiance of Moscow that has warned that such moves would only prolong the conflict.

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‘US destabilizing Afghanistan’

Elsewhere in his remarks, Lavrov said that the US supports terrorist groups in Afghanistan with the aim of destabilizing the region.

“It is well known that the US actively supports Daesh militants remaining in Afghanistan and al-Qaeda and other affiliated terrorist groups,” he said. “The goal is simple... the goal is not to allow Afghanistan to calm down.”

“It is in the interests of the United States to have some destabilizing processes constantly taking place there,” he said.

Lavrov also dismissed as “false” statements made by the US Ambassador to Tajikistan Manuel Micaller in which he denied US support for violent groups opposing the Taliban.

“It is not by chance that they do not give up the idea of returning their military infrastructure to the neighboring countries. As if to react to terrorist threats beyond the horizon,” the minister said.

The Taliban retook power in Afghanistan following the chaotic withdrawal of US forces from the country in 2020, nearly 20 years after they invaded Afghanistan allegedly to fight terrorism.

Over the past years, the United States has been accused by many regional officials of being engaged in transferring terrorists belonging to the Daesh terror outfit and other Takfiri groups from Iraq and Syria, where the terrorists have suffered defeat, to various other regional countries.

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