Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday said attempts to isolate Moscow with sanctions was akin to a declaration of economic war by the West, dismissing what he said was “frenzied” criticism of the war in Ukraine.
Speaking at a G20 gathering in Indonesia, Lavrov said Russia would now turn to China and India and other nations outside the West. He scolded Russia’s rivals for scuppering a chance to tackle global economic issues by focusing on Ukraine.
Russia’s invasion its neighbour has triggered the most serious crisis in relations between Russia and Western nations since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when many people feared the world was on the brink of nuclear war.
Indonesia urged the G20 on Friday to help end the war, at a meeting that put foreign ministers from some of the staunchest critics of Russia’s invasion in the same room as Moscow’s top diplomat.
“Aggressors’, ‘invaders’, ‘occupiers’ – we heard a lot of things today,” Lavrov told reporters.
He said the West’s discussion “strayed almost immediately, as soon as they took the floor, to the frenzied criticism of the Russian Federation in connection with the situation in Ukraine”.
“During the discussion, Western partners avoided following the mandate of the G20, from dealing with issues of the world economy,” Lavrov said.
Russia says its “special military operation” is intended to degrade the Ukrainian military and root out people it calls dangerous nationalists.
Ukraine and its Western backers say Russia is engaged in an imperial-style land grab. They say Russia has no justification for the war.
