Russian foreign minister says Germany lost its independence since new gov't came to power

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday that Germany lost its independence since the new government came to power.

Speaking at an educational marathon New Horizons in Moscow, Lavrov said French President Emmanuel Macron is now the last European leader who speaks about the political autonomy of the EU.

"Since the current government came to power, Germany has lost the last signs of independence.

"In the European Union now only, probably, (French) President (Emmanuel) Macron is still trying to somehow talk about the strategic autonomy of the EU," the minister said.

Lavrov also expressed surprise about German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's mild reaction to "impolite remarks" by Ukraine's Ambassador to Germany (Andriy Melnyk).

This came after Scholz's refusal to visit Kyiv with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who was refused a meeting with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy because of his "proximity to Russia."

However, later Zelenskyy and Steinmeier had a phone talk and settled "misunderstandings."

Lavrov then said the West is unhappy to see that some states beat it in its own game, and in the first turn China, which is now playing by the West's own rules.

"In the West, they directly say that it is time to reform economic institutions, because they were created by the West, created on the basis of those mechanisms that the Americans offered to everyone else and forced them to accept.

"It was on the basis of these mechanisms in world trade and finance that China, following these same rules, beat the West and the US and came out on top as the world economy," the minister said.

However, he expects that despite the attempts to counteract, the big states like China, India, Brazil will continue to develop and grow and will form new centers of a multipolar world.