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Interview of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov to Tsargrad TV channel, Moscow, May 17, 2023.
Text of video:
"Question: Do you still maintain a dialogue, or has it all turned into monologues?
Sergey Lavrov: We do not communicate at the ministerial level. Sometimes Washington (the White House) calls Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov, sending the same message: “release Paul Whelan,” and now also journalist, as they call him, Evan Gershkovich.
The second topic that is still afloat deals with the working conditions for Russian diplomats in the United States and American diplomats in the Russian Federation. It is roughly the same issues that sometimes surface in contacts between us and European countries (the EU and NATO).
Europe has completely lost its independence. Whatever French President Emmanuel Macron may say about “strategic autonomy,” or Josep Borrell may declare about the need for Europe to be more active in the Indo-Pacific Region, Europe has ceded all its positions to the North Atlantic Alliance. And it has ceded even in a legal sense, having signed a declaration to that effect, which clearly indicates the EU’s place and states the supremacy of NATO institutions. The Americans will therefore decide when and how to use Europe to their advantage. It is clear that the most aggrieved party (apart from the Ukrainian people) in terms of developments around Ukraine are the Europeans. This concerns the depletion of their budgets and the stance they are being forced to take to pump Ukraine full of arms and funds to maintain a basic budgetary balance and to pay pensions, benefits and salaries, at their own expense. The de-industrialisation of Europe is in full swing. Back in October 2022, Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, Finance and Recovery and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty of France, sounded the alarm that because of the sanctions the West imposed under US leadership on our energy supplies, the cost of energy for European businesses is four times that of US businesses. Plus, the Americans have passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which is clearly protectionist and puts Europe in an inferior position. Businesses from Europe are starting to actively move overseas. So, Europe is footing the bill."
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