Putin and Trump will not allow armed conflict between Russia and US – Lavrov

In an interview with RIA Novosti, Russian news, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the possibility of a direct military confrontation between the USA and the Russian Federation, and why he believes that the presidents of these nations, Russia and the United States, will not allow such a conflict to materialize:

“I still think that both Defense Minister Mattis and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces, Dunford, understand the inadmissibility, inadmissibility of any actions that could provoke a direct military clash between Russia and the United States.

This, in my opinion, is so obvious that the military can not fail to understand it, and they understand this better than many others. When politicians try to pander, sorry for the jargon, the leadership of their country, demanding more and more confrontation from it, including physical confrontation, this is irresponsible.

They attempt to placate their own political bases, to try to achieve their internal political goals, the inter-party struggle is a violent process, and this is manifested in Congress, with militant speculation on the Russian factor, seeing that their only point of unity is their Russophobia.

But this campaign still fizzles out, and is artificially fueled with absolutely unprecedented sanctions, hoping that this will make us accept their terms for a normalization of relations; but this is at least short-sighted and naive.

Because they are talking about what? We want good relations with Russia, but for this Russia needs to recognize all its sins and mistakes, that is, they proceed from their infallibility and that in everything that is happening, only Russia is to blame, which has gone against it and acts as a revisionist power, revising the modern world order.

And under the world order, they do not understand the UN Charter, they understand what they see as necessary in order to preserve, try to maintain their dominance. I understand: when for several centuries the historical West, as we call it, has had free reign to do whatever in the world they want to do, now, when centers of power appear in Asia, and in Latin America and, indeed, the Russian Federation, one of the most important players on the world stage – they don’t like it when they try to defend their interests.

And we do not strive to impose our interests, we propose to seek a balance of these interests in order to negotiate, and they say: Well, we will agree when you capitulate to our view of how the world works. Here, in fact, is the issue. So, going back to the question of the risks of military confrontation, I am 100% certain that the military will not allow it, and this, of course, will not be allowed by either President Putin or, I’m certain, President Trump.They are still leaders who are elected by their peoples, they are responsible to these nations for their own peace and security.”