Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov says NATO harbours malicious plans against Russia

Russia takes note of NATO's malicious plans and EU's threats

The North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) has malicious plans against Russia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, RIA Novosti reports.

Earlier on June 1, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called on the alliance to build up "political muscles." It was also reported that Maas supported the reform of NATO funding proposed by NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg and advocated dialogue with Russia. At the same time, Maas stressed that "the ball is on the side of Moscow."

On May 31, the NATO Secretary General said that the alliance wanted to improve relations with Russia. He noted that even if relations do not improve, Moscow and NATO should maintain a dialogue, which becomes even more important against the backdrop of difficult interaction between the parties.

Russia draws conclusions from EU's threats

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also said that Moscow did not have a goal to destroy the global economic system, although it drew conclusions from EU threats to disconnect Russia from SWIFT.

“We presume that this will harm all participants in multilateral communication without exception,” the minister said.

He added that the Russian authorities did and will do everything in order to reliably ensure the interests of Russia and its partners.

On May 31, Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva said that the decision to disconnect Russia from SWIFT could only be taken unanimously, by all EU members.

In April, MEPs adopted a resolution regulating measures against Russia in the event of a conflict with Ukraine. According to the document, in the event of the outbreak of hostilities,

  • the EU will stop imports of oil and gas from Russia,
  • disconnect the country from SWIFT,
  • freeze European assets of representatives of the Russian authorities and oligarchs,
  • and bar them from entering the territory of EU countries.

SWIFT is an international system to transfer information and make payments between banks. More than 11,000 large companies in 200 countries of the world are connected to the system. Russia is one of the most active participants of it. 

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Author`s name Editorial Team
Editor Dmitry Sudakov
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