Lavrov made a number of statements on the sidelines of the SPIEF: "dismemberment" of Russia, USA, Ukraine, Armenia

A vicious circle is observed in the dialogue with the United States on the Ukrainian settlement. This was stated in an interview with Izvestia on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. He also touched upon the situation with Armenia and Georgia.

As Lavrov noted, the West has always wanted to suppress and dismember Russia:

"The West has never hidden that it wants to deprive our neighbors of the benefits of cooperation with Russia and wants them to pay the price of the adventure that the West has always nurtured and continues to nurture, meaning the suppression, or even better— the dismemberment of Russia."

The achievement of the objectives of the special operation, the minister said, "will ensure a significant strengthening" of Russia's position in the international arena.

Full normalization of relations between Russia and the United States should include the presence of the American ambassador:

"This is an American decision [the absence of the US ambassador]. Any country has the right to determine the level of its diplomatic representation in foreign countries. If it's convenient for them. Of course, full normalization should include a full—fledged head of the diplomatic mission - the ambassador," he said.

The United States left unanswered a proposal to lift sanctions against parliamentarians of the two countries:

"I have reminded you a couple of times, but there is no reaction to this," Lavrov said.

According to him, Moscow is not against the fact that special envoy of the US President Steve Witkoff and businessman Jared Kushner, in parallel with conducting a dialogue with Russia, are engaged in other agendas, including issues of various settlements.:

"The main thing is that what you talk about, what you agree on, be fulfilled."

Witkoff and Kushner are sincerely interested in normalizing relations with Russia, but this has not materialized yet, the minister said.:

"We appreciate that the negotiators, Messrs. Witkoff and Kushner, have very good feelings for our country. As far as we can judge from their statements, they are sincerely interested in normalizing these relations, but their interests have not materialized yet."

As Lavrov stressed, a vicious circle is observed in the dialogue with the United States on the Ukrainian settlement: "And now we are walking in this circle."

The Russian side notes no progress on the settlement around Ukraine almost a year after the Anchorage summit and no desire to convince the Kiev regime to accept Washington's proposals:

"On August 15, it will be one year since the summit in Alaska was held to consider American proposals on Ukraine. The Russian leadership accepted these proposals. And since then we have seen no progress, no desire to convince Ukraine to accept these American proposals."

As for Europe, Lavrov said that it will not support any settlement "that in any way will take out from under its control" the Nazi regime of Vladimir Zelensky "or someone who can replace him in the future."

Europeans do not hide the Russophobic subtext of the whole enterprise with the involvement of Ukraine in the EU:

"They want to start these negotiation processes with the Ukrainians almost this or next [week], not paying attention to the gross violation of the UN Charter and Convention on the Rights of National Minorities. That is, the Russophobic subtext of all this action involving Ukraine in the European Union is not even hidden."

The statements of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte about the future of Ukraine in the alliance are due to the desire to show that Europe itself will order music:

"NATO Secretary General Rutte in Kiev said that Ukraine will be a member of NATO. That is, Europe wants to prove that it is she who will order music, that she will not refuse to support the Nazi regime. It is to this regime that Europe promises security guarantees when the fighting ends."

The United States is the only one who recognized the "need to eliminate the root cause of the Ukrainian crisis" — Russia's security problems through Ukraine's involvement in NATO.

It is not yet clear that the United States is aiming to consolidate the agreements on Ukraine already with the participation of Kiev "and convince Europe not to interfere," TASS quotes Lavrov's key statements.

Speaking about Armenia, Lavrov recalled that the leadership of this country "put the issue squarely" by adopting the law on the country's movement to the EU and now must "be responsible for the words."

As for Georgia, the Russian Foreign Minister said that its current leadership is pragmatic, it understands the negative consequences of the country's accession to the European Union.:

"The current Georgian leadership are pragmatists, they confirm their course to the European Union, but they understand that then they will have to stop being a country that is famous for its products."

EADaily adds: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzina said today in an interview with Lenta.<url>" on the sidelines of the XXIX SPIEF that Moscow is closely monitoring the development of the internal political situation in the Republic of Armenia and its foreign policy guidelines.

"The choice of alliances and integration formats is the sovereign right of our Armenian partners. At the same time, it is necessary to keep in mind the possible consequences for the already established architecture of regional security and economic cooperation. If Yerevan unilaterally starts switching to EU legal and technical standards, this will inevitably call into question the preservation of the previous regime of its participation in the EAEU," Galuzin said.