NATO: Defensive alliance or a threat to Peace?

The North Atlantic Organization (NATO) was created as a defensive alliance more than 70 years ago, but reality shows it to be a different lobby, since it promotes the multimillion-dollar arms market, extraterritorial invasions, armed conflicts for economic and geopolitical objectives, and its best card: war.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov offered an interview on Thursday to the British media BBC to address the situation in Ukraine. The foreign minister specified that the objective of Moscow’s military operation is «the protection of the Russians in Donbass, who were betrayed by both the French and the Germans».

«The British were also in the ‘front row’. All their Western colleagues said that they could not force Kyiv to comply with the Minsk agreements», he denounced, specifying that Russia, for its part, has been trying since 2014 to make Donetsk and Lugansk sign such agreements that «guaranteed the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine».

Lavrov assured that Moscow began its operation when «it had no other way to explain to the West that it was engaging in criminal activities, dragging Ukraine into NATO, pampering, sponsoring and feeding in every possible way the neo-Nazi regime, whose president, Vladimir Zelensky announced in September 2021 […] publicly, that if someone felt Russian in Ukraine, that person should go back to Russia», he asserted.

«When a CNN correspondent told him (Zelensky)  that the Azov regiment was included in some Western countries, such as the US and Japan, on the list of extremist terrorist organizations, Zelensky shrugged his shoulders and said that they had many battalions and regiments, and added: they are as they are», Lavrov recalled in his statements to the media.

The diplomat denounced the attacks carried out by the Kyiv regime with weapons provided by the West, «just as they did in 2014, when the coup plotters came to power, when they bombed the center of Lugansk from planes, when 50 people were burned in Odessa». Lavrov emphasized that the Ukrainian authorities «bomb their own population», while the West «sells them weapons so that they continue to do so».

Similarly, Lavrov questioned his interlocutor about the role that the Western media, particularly the BBC, have had regarding the Bucha tragedy.

“Maybe they said Russia had done it. Isn’t that right? The Guardian newspaper, which is published in London, obtained the results of a preliminary forensic analysis which showed that most of the bodies, which they showed on every television channel in the world, had received shrapnel wounds».

However, the interviewer dodged the question, «I haven’t been to Bucha, I’m in Russia, that’s why I’m asking you about Russia’s position», he commented.

«NATO is a threat»

The Russian minister pointed out that, in his opinion, NATO is «a threat», because countries such as Serbia or Afghanistan have explained the consequences they suffered as a result of the Alliance’s actions. In Afghanistan, for example, the military group even bombed wedding ceremonies. «Just because they thought: why do those people get together? We have to bomb them just in case», he specified.

«Talk to the citizens of Iraq, Libya, whose countries were destroyed to the core. After that, NATO still declares itself as a defensive alliance», insisted Lavrov, adding that the Alliance also promised Moscow that Ukraine’s accession to its ranks would not create any threat. «With all due respect to our colleagues in the North Atlantic Alliance, Russia has the right to decide for itself what is a threat to its security and what is not», he stressed.

«The ‘eyes of the West’ do not interest me at all»

During the interview, the Russian minister was also asked about British mercenaries, Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, who were recently sentenced to death by the Donetsk authorities for taking part in the fighting in Donbass on the Ukrainian side. The journalist pointed out to Lavrov that Russia, «in the ‘eyes of the West’ is responsible for the fate of these people». 

In response, the minister said: «The ‘eyes of the West’ do not interest me at all. I am only interested in international law, according to which mercenaries are not combatants. So I don’t care what happens before those eyes».

Lavrov said that the fate of Aslin and Pinner must be decided by a court, as Moscow seeks to «protect the rights of Russians, who for eight years were grossly ignored not only by the Kyiv regime, but also by the entire West and the civilized community, who refused to abide by the Minsk agreements».

«If you did not want to guarantee the rights of the Russians in Donbass by fulfilling the UN Security Council resolution by Kyiv, we ourselves will guarantee the rights of the Russians. We do it», he asserted. 

“Russia is neither good nor lovable. It is what it is, and we are not ashamed to show ourselves as we are», concluded Lavrov.