Lavrov to unnamed foe: Don’t try to destabilize socialist nations

While not mentioning the United States by name, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov decried any effort by an “outside” nation to destabilize the governments of Cuba, Venezuela, Russia and China.

Lavrov made the statement on Wednesday (Oct. 8) after meeting in Moscow with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Rafael Ramírez Carreño, who delivered to him a message of support from the Venezuelan government in Russia’s confrontation with the West over Ukraine.

“We have a very negative attitude toward attempts at regime change in sovereign states through the implementation of certain actions from the outside,” Lavrov said at a subsequent press conference. “This applies to Venezuela, Cuba, Russia, China, and any other state, including European Union states.”

“Any attempts to interfere in internal affairs, to try to use some tools to ‘heat up’ a situation or create tension are unlawful,” he cautioned. “They do not comply with the obligations of states under international law. We treat them negatively and will work to ensure that the international community condemns such attempts and calls on them to be abandoned forever.”

An official announcement said that Lavrov and Ramírez met to discuss political and economic cooperation. Also, they reportedly discussed a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro within the context of the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Negotiations between Moscow and Caracas, Lavrov said, “are intended to give new impetus to a range of Russian-Venezuelan relations, confirming our mutual desire to develop a strategic partnership between the two countries.”

The message that Ramírez delivered to Lavrov said that Venezuela “rejects the sanctions imposed by the governments of the United States and the European Union against the Russian Federation for the purpose of trying to weaken and blackmail its sovereignty.

“These governments must not attempt, under the guise of the scenarios they themselves orchestrated in Ukraine, to restrict Russia’s economic development,” the document said.

The message goes on to say that Venezuela supports the creation of the Euro-Asian Economic Union formed by Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan last May and urges Russia to establish closer relations with Latin American blocs such as Mercosur, Unasur, CELAC and Petrocaribe, “which somehow might counteract and neutralize the imperial policies of sanctions of any kind.”

[For background information in Progreso Weekly about the close cooperation between Russia and Latin American countries, click here, here and here.]

[Photo on top is of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.]