Lavrov Targets Military-Industrial Complex in His UN Speech
Jan. 23—Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov targeted the military-industrial complex in the West and their profit-making in his in-person address to the UN Security Council (UNSC) yesterday, referring to them as the major cause for continuing the war in Ukraine. While outlining the policy of the Western elites to use Ukraine to weaken Russia, he also went after the crass motives of the arms manufacturers to make a profit over the death of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians.
“U.S. President George Biden even called this situation ‘an excellent investment.’ Similar thoughts were expressed by other American officials and their colleagues from Foggy Albion [ a reference to Great Britain's Foreign Ministry],” said Lavrov, reflecting some of the arguments used by the Biden Administration to sell the war to Congress. "Trying to get opponents in Congress to agree to a new aid package for Ukraine, representatives of the current administration sound even more cynical. From their speeches, we learned, in particular, that 90% of the military budget allocated by the Americans to the Kiev regime remains in the United States and goes to the development of the country’s military-industrial sector and the renewal of weapons. The old ‘junk’ is disposed of in Ukraine…. U.S. Secretary of State A. Blinken emphasizes that continued assistance to Ukraine is a guarantee of creating new jobs in the United States. As if we are not talking about financing a war that has already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in Ukraine, but about some kind of profitable business project.
“It’s probably time for the Europeans—I’m addressing their sensible part—to wake up and understand that, with the help of [Ukrainian President] Zelenskyy’s regime, the United States is not only waging a war against Russia but is also solving the strategic task of sharply weakening Europe as an economic competitor. Washington undermined its energy security, provoking dangerous crisis trends in the European economy and social sphere. I won’t even focus on the topic of terrorist attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines….” commented Lavrov. He also noted that the Europeans, who were providing their own weaponry to Ukraine, would also have to purchase new weapons from “the death merchants” in Washington.
The same thing goes for how they are warning that Russia will attack other countries. “We … will probably hear today from our Western colleagues a crafty thesis that boils down to the fact that ‘if Russia stops fighting, the war will end, and if Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine will end.’ The highest echelons of the United States even agreed that after this Russia would attack Poland, the Baltic states, and Finland. You can’t come up with anything in the hope of extorting money from Congress and European parliaments, convincing them of the need to continuously help Ukraine to the detriment of its citizens to the last dollar and euro,” he said.
He further described how “those in charge in Kiev are simply reselling some of the weapons supplied by the West on the black market. You can find quite a few similar advertisements on the darknet. It is difficult to imagine that this is happening without the knowledge and participation of Western businessmen, because ‘one hand washes the other.’ One of the latest examples is the American M-16 rifles transferred to Kiev, which anyone can buy through an ad online for cryptocurrency.”
Lavrov explained that Ukraine is even selling its patrimony to the Western nations, telling the UNSC: “The obsolete equipment is sent to Ukraine. Most major Ukrainian plants and companies, including lithium facilities, have been sold to the Americans. Fertile land has been leased to them on an indefinite lease for very little. One of the striking examples is the acquisition by Soros-controlled entities of black earth soils to bury the waste of the Western chemical industry.”
Regarding the relations between Russia and Ukraine and the true potential for peace, he described how "Changes in the consciousness of Ukrainians are clearly visible on social networks. Despite the most severe censorship, the truth is emerging about how they live in Crimea and other territories that have recently reunited with Russia. … The new government solves people’s problems, improves their lives, develops infrastructure, and does not think about how to line their own pockets. The contrast is so obvious that it is useless to deny it, so in Ukraine and the West … it is extremely dangerous for them because it shows how Russians and Ukrainians can and should live in conditions when the West is not allowed to interfere in the relations of two fraternal peoples and, according to the old colonialist methodology, set them against each other.
“And exactly as befits brothers and good neighbors, they will live after the implementation of the goals of a special military operation, be it military or peaceful.
“Let me remind you that we never abandoned the latter and always remained ready for negotiations. Negotiations are not about how to keep the leaders of the Kiev regime in power and indulge their fantasies, but about overcoming the legacy of the destructive ten-year plunder of the country and violence against its people, about eliminating the causes of the tragic situation for Ukraine. All other supposedly peaceful plans, platforms and ‘formulas’ that the Kiev regime and its masters are still futilely running around with have nothing to do with peace and serve only as a cover for continuing the war and pumping money out of Western taxpayers.”
