29.08.2018, Moscow.
The Russian Federation’s foreign policy has no ideological tinge, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on August 28, Rossiyskaya Gazeta reports.
The absence of ideology means that Russia is ready to interact with any partner. Lavrov stressed that recent actions by the United States have been extremely inconsistent. This leads to relations between the two countries deteriorating. “Despite US assurances in its readiness for dialogue, we still face unfriendly steps exacerbating the already difficult relations between us,” the Russian Foreign Ministry chief said.
On the one hand, different methods and approaches are being utilized to facilitate the US-Russia dialogue, launched after Putin and Trump met in Helsinki. On the other hand, the United States is imposing new sanctions against Russia and making absurd demands.
Lavrov called the US’s demand for Russia to provide evidence of non-use of chemical weapons, absurd. The Minister reminded that Moscow, unlike Washington, had abolished its arsenal of chemical weapons long ago, which was confirmed by OPCW experts.
On August 27, a new package of anti-Russian sanctions came into force under the pretext of Moscow’s involvement in poisoning the Skripal family in the UK in March of this year. The British side rejected Russia’s proposal to conduct a joint investigation of what happened in the city of Salisbury.
It should be noted that no dominant ideology can exist according to the Constitution of the Russian Federation.
Editorial comment
The absence of ideology leads to the absence of strategy because pragmatism becomes the main factor determining policy, i.e. the concept regarding benefits from certain actions. When using the pragmatic approach, which our elite evidently favors, both strategy and ideology become burdensome, since they seriously limit the freedom of political maneuver.
But in the circumstances of an ongoing “cold war”, the existence of which Mr. Lavrov recognized, the pragmatic approach is disastrous. Technically, the US called the USSR its ideological enemy and successfully achieved its collapse. But in essence, the enemy of the United States, regardless of ideology or other factors, is any country or a bloc of countries that threaten its hegemony.
When Russia rejoined with Crimea in 2014, it consequently challenged the state of affairs according to which the West had defeated Russia in the Cold War. Russia has become an enemy to the West only because it challenging the West: first in Georgia in 2008, then in Crimea in 2014, and then in Syria in 2015. No matter how much our elite tries to persuade itself in the absence of any ideological differences between Russia and the United States, which means an opportunity to reach a mutually beneficial agreement, the US does not see it this way. It has to destroy Russia in order to discourage others from rebelling.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
