The assertions about Russia’s striving to split Europe are absurd, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview published by the Slovak newspaper Pravda.
"The assertions about Russia’s ostensible striving to weaken or to split Europe are absurd," he noted. "We have spoken continually for a buildup of broad and equitable cooperation on the European continent that along the principle of equal and indivisible security," the diplomat stressed.
Lavrov said that Russia prefers not to characterize popular European politicians as populists and not to put such labels on them.
"We try not to think in this way, in this paradigm of notions," TASS cited him as saying. The top diplomat explained that "we are talking about the politicians who are voted in by the majority of European citizens."
"This means that with their ideas and action programs, the politicians managed to respond to the voters’ needs and to offer their methods of resolving the issues that Europe is currently facing," Lavrov added.
