Sergey Lavrov on provocations in international diplomacy

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 television channel that some countries take provocative steps on the global arena seeking to set others against this or that state.

The Russian foreign minister stressed that sometimes it is better to refrain from swift reaction to negative steps. "Maybe such steps are geared to provoke you to react, to use it later in order to set a whole lot of other state against you as they easily buy into such tricks," Lavrov warned.

"But when they seriously hit your national interests, thing that are of principal importance for you, naturally, you must respond," TASS cited him as saying.

Lavrov recalled the actions of U.S.’ previous president, Barack Obama, who "slamming the door when his administration was in agony, out of mere spite, seeking to avenge the Democrats’ defeat at the presidential elections," seized Russia’s property, expelled Russian diplomats.

The Russian top diplomat noted that Moscow did not react right away back then because the leadership understood that it was a step aimed mainly against U.S. President Donald Trump so that his presidency started with such a state in relations with Russia. "As you remember, we took a pause then," he recalled.

According to Lavrov, the U.S. Congress simply did not let Trump develop normal relations with Russia, despite his declarations.