Delhi crowd laughs as Russian foreign minister says war in Ukraine ‘was waged against us’ – video Russia
Sergei Lavrov says Moscow is “trying to stop the war” in remarks at India’s Raisina Dialogue conference
Remarks by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at an international conference in India when he said the Ukraine war had been “launched” against his homeland were met with laughter.
At the Raisina Dialogue, a political and economic event in Delhi, Lavrov also claimed that Russia was trying to end the war.
“The war that we are trying to stop and that has been waged against us with the help of Ukrainian people has of course influenced Russia’s politics, including energy policy,” he said, briefly stumbling over his words as people in the audience laughed.
Lavrov continued: “And the blunt way of describing what has changed: we would no longer rely on any partners in the West. We would not allow them to blow up the pipelines again,” referring to the blasts that damaged the Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic Sea in September.
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Contrary to Lavrov’s claims, on February 24 last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched what he described as a “special military operation” in Ukraine.
However, the audience did not laugh at everything Lavrov had to say. When asked about the “double standard” of Western military intervention, the audience applauded his response.
“During those years, have you been interested in what’s going on in Iraq, what’s going on in Afghanistan? Have you asked the United States and NATO if they are sure about what they are doing?” he asked.
The Raisina Dialogue conference comes after a G20 foreign ministers meeting in Delhi, where US Secretary of State Antony Blinken Lavrov said the US would not back down in its support for Ukraine.
India, which has long had economic and military ties with Russia, is neutral on the Ukraine war.
It has abstained from voting on UN resolutions condemning the invasion of Russia and has increased its imports of Russian oil following the imposition of Western sanctions on Moscow.
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