By Vestnik Kavkaza
Yesterday Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian state media that the US goal in Ukraine was to prevent partnership between Russia and the EU. “It is important for them that somebody is permanently dependent on them. As for the Ukrainian crisis, their goal is to prevent us and the EU from deepening our partnership or to rebound the prospects of such a partnership, primarily between Russia and Germany. I have no doubts that this is a strategic goal,” Lavrov said.
The Russian Institute of Strategic Studies (RISS) also regards the policies of the US and the EU critically. It presented a report "Policy of the European Union in respect of post-Soviet countries in the context of Eurasian integration." Tamara Guzenkova, Deputy Director, head of the RISS center for studies of neighboring countries, is sure that Russia and the West have been heading for confrontation for the last ten years. “For some geopolitical players, especially for the United States, it was originally given a task which was implemented more or less effectively for the Americans over the past 10 years, and which acquired its acute form in 2013-2014,” Guzenkova thinks.
She draws attention to the role of the so-called border countries, or new members of the EU and the North Atlantic Alliance – the Baltic countries that “decided to undertake implementation of the American scenario.” “Over the past years they have played the role of the attack dogs of US politics. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that since 2004-2005, not just anti-Russian, but a Russophobic trend became acute in the policies of a number of states, primarily of Eastern European states. And Russophobic rhetoric, politics, war-related monuments, history and historical memory, particularly related to the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War, testified that the situation is not permitted, but rather heated. And in this sense, of course, a certain sinister apotheosis has come into the events that we are experiencing now in Ukraine. The Ukrainian scenario is in fact a variant of the North African, the Middle Eastern scenarios, but very close to the border with Russia,” Guzenkova says.
According to her, “due to objective, compelling reasons, primarily in economic terms, Russia is a hub and a key element of the integration process. If you compare the size of GDP, the economic stake, which puts Russia in economic and trade turnover with these countries, Russia is the main partner and chief integrator, and of course, all the arrows and efforts are aimed at weakening it, exhaust it. And one of the elements of this process is the war which was started in Ukraine.”
