The West wants still more sanctions on Moscow because it cannot compete with the Russian weapons industry, the foreign minister has said
The West is losing the arms race and now calling for sanctions on Russian military equipment in an effort to punish Moscow for its role in the Ukraine conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has claimed.
Speaking in an interview with the TV program Military Acceptance, Lavrov said Russian weapons have earned a reputation as reliable tools for states that want to protect their sovereignty and resist external interference. He argued that the perceived effectiveness of the hardware has triggered increased pressure from the West.
Below is the full text of the interview.
Question: What challenges does the Russian arms export system face in the modern context, and how do we counter them in the international arena?
Sergey Lavrov: The same challenges that we face when exporting any other goods, energy commodities and finished products – sanctions and attempts to justify them by the need to punish Russia for its “behavior” in Ukraine. In reality, it is a dirty and anti-competitive fight.
This is yet another example of the West acknowledging that it is absolutely impossible to negotiate with. In this case – about the globalization rules of a free market, presumption of innocence and many other things that the Western countries have been advocating for decades.
All of that went down the drain as soon as the West realized it was losing the competition. It was clinging to any excuses. In this situation our special military operation came in handy although sanctions had been imposed on the Russian defense sector long before the operation began.
We know how to offset this, because the vast majority of non-Western countries do not want to put up with “dancing to this pipe” for life. Everyone wants to trade honestly, and those who sincerely want to make mutually beneficial transactions will always find financial, banking, and logistics chains and this is what is happening now.
Question: Allow me to make a little remark. Whenever we visit arms expos, our operator has “Military Acceptance” written in big Russian letters on the back of his clothes. When we were in the Republic of South Africa, we saw something very unexpected: a local man walked towards us, then unbuttoned his shirt, and we saw the St. George ribbon and the letter Z. And he was one of the local elite, the South African elite.
These countries are much more open to Russia. The situation is the same in Brazil. People used to approach us when they saw we were from Russian TV, and sometimes they would even suggest giving us an interview.
Russia has been exporting weaponry for centuries. Already in the 20th and 21st centuries Soviet (and later Russian) arms became a symbol of quality that the competition could never attain. Some [Soviet weapons] have been imprinted in the coats of arms of many countries. Can we assume that our country and its military, technological, and historical heritage is viewed as a reliable guarantor of security?
Sergey Lavrov: The short answer is – yes, no doubt about it. We talked about our products being absolutely competitive. It is covered with glory including the glory of the fight against colonialism.
The Kalashnikov is a symbol of decolonization. African countries have perfect memories of how their grandfathers and fathers gained independence with the help of Soviet weaponry at that time and assisted by our advisers who “on the ground” selected the tasks the newly independent states were fulfilling in their fight against colonialism.
Thus, even in the present-day situation, in the more advanced technological environments we never lagged behind in this “race.”
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