Lavrov says Ukraine's president made peace talks with Russia 'criminal offense'

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made negotiations with Moscow a "criminal offense," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.

Speaking at the Raisina Dialogue conference in New Delhi, Lavrov said everybody is asking when is Russia ready to negotiate to end the war that began in February 2022, but nobody prompts Ukraine for peace talks.

He reminded that Ukraine's principal sponsor, the West, has been continuously saying that "it is not time to negotiate yet because Ukraine must win in the battlefield before any negotiation."

"And Zelenskyy himself, nobody calling on Zelenskyy, asking when he is going to negotiate. But you should have known, preparing this topic at this meeting, that in September last year, Zelenskyy signed a decree, making it a criminal offense to negotiate with Russia as long as Vladimir Putin is the president.

"So can you address this issue, can you ask him what he is doing?" Lavrov said.

The minister stressed that Russia had been warning for decades that the West should stop NATO expansion and providing arms to Ukraine to prepare it for war with Russia.

He cited US President Joe Biden, US secretary of state, and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg as saying that "Russia must suffer a strategic defeat at the battlefield," which is "existential" for the West's global domination.

"This is a very blunt admittance, I would say," Lavrov noted.

The Russian foreign minister said the Western countries tried to include the situation in Ukraine in the declaration of the G-20 ministerial meeting, but to no avail because the group has never reflected in its declarations other conflict situations, including in Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan or Yugoslavia.

"The G-20 was formed in 1999 at the level of ministers of finance and central banks directors ... Nobody was giving a damn about anything except finances, and macroeconomic policies, which G-20 was formed for.

"These days when it is not something, which the West is doing, believing that it is right, when Russia has after many years of callings started to defend itself, there is nothing except Ukraine, which is of interest to G-20. It's a shame, and this policy will fail," Lavrov stressed.

- Russia to reorient its energy policy 'towards reliable partners'

Lavrov said Russia will never rely on the West after the war in Ukraine, and will instead focus on building relations with "reliable" partners.

"The war, which we are trying to stop, which was launched against us using Ukrainian people, of course, influenced Russia, including energy policy and the blunt way to describe what changed -- we would not anymore rely on any partners in the West," he stressed.

The minister added that Moscow "would not allow" to blow its pipelines again," referring to explosions of the Nord Stream gas pipelines through which Russia delivered gas to Europe last September.

He said Moscow asked for an investigation of Nord Stream incidents but "immediately this investigation request was denied," and the US called it "a nonsense."

He said Germany was "humiliated" "physically and morally and in many other ways" when it agreed to such state of affairs, because its core interests were affected by this incident.

According to Lavrov, "everything, which is happening now is to reduce Europe to a subordinate player of the Unites States, to undercut European competitive edge," and "to ruin" economic ties between Russia and the EU.

"So be it. If this is the choice of them, which fits in the rhetoric, in the narrative, that what is going on is existential for the West from the point of view of its ability to dominate, then everything fits in the place," he said.

Russia's energy policy will be oriented towards reliable partners, and India and China are "certainly" among them, he said.

- China-India relations

Addressing India's concerns about Russia-China rapprochement, Lavrov said Moscow has excellent relations with both China and India.

He said relations with India are characterized in the official documents as "especially privileged strategic partnership."

"I don't know whether any other countries have the same status on paper, officially, with our Indian friends, but this is what we believe, is reflecting the reality. Be it economy, be it technology, be it military cooperation, military-technical cooperation, culture, humanitarian ties, educational ties," the minister said.

He added that currently Moscow has the best ever relations with Beijing, and it is interested in China and India to be friends.

Lavrov recalled that at the initiative of his predecessor RIC -- Russia, India, China -- format was created, which eventually evolved in BRICS -- Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa.

He noted that BRICS turned out to be more popular, and some two dozen countries are willing like to join it, however, the RIC troika continues to function, there was a meeting last year, and another one is planned for this year at the ministerial level.

"My feeling is the more they (China and India) meet -- the better. And RIC is a platform for India and China in our presence, because they might not feel themselves comfortable being one on one all the time, you know, to find some additional common grounds," he said.

Lavrov named BRICS as another platform for China and India to discuss issues of mutual interest, as well as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

"We strongly supported India joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, including from the point of view providing another platform where India and China can cooperate together and to look for some common solutions," Lavrov said.

He added that concerns should arise from US' activities in the region, as Washington is trying to promote anti-Russia and anti-China formats.