Speaking to the U.N. General Assembly today, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proxy, 67-year-old Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, denounced President Donald Trump’s speech, slamming North Korea and Iran. Lavrov said he was “extremely concerned” that Washington “may have” violated the 1987 Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile Treaty. Expressing concerns over Trump’s remarks about the July 15, 2015 Joint Plan of Action Agreement with Iraq, the so-called Iranian Nuke Deal, Russia had no problem letting former President Barack Obama give Iran $1.7 billion in cash, then releasing some $150 billion in frozen Iranian assets. Russia gave Iran the nuclear enrichment technology to potentially work on an A-bomb, something so contentious it nearly brought the U.S. and Iran to blows. Lavrov’s focus on technical issues with a 1987 landmark arms control pact show the diversion.
Lavrov mentioned nothing in his remarks to the General Assembly about invading and seizing the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine March 1, 2014. Russia’s aggressive actions on the Ukrainian border spread widespread panic in former Soviet satellites, especially in the Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Poland was so freaked over Moscow’s annexation of Crimea, they requested, under Russian objections, more NATO troops and THAAD missile defense systems. Lavrov did everything possible in his remarks to the General Assembly to divert attention from Russia’s aggressive actions toward sovereign states. No mention was made of Russia’s nine-year-old invasion of Georgia on the Black Sea. Seizing sovereign territory in South Ossetia and Abkhazia in 2008, Russia never left, much like the situation looks in Crimea, where Russian forces look parked to stay.
Lavrov couldn’t believe that the U.S. finds anything wrong with Obama’s Joint Plan of Action, requiring Iran to allow the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] unfettered inspections of all Iranian enrichment sites. Before the ink was dry, Iran insisted that inspections were forbidden at any of Iran’s highly sensitive military sites. When you consider that Iran was enriching weapons grade uranium before the agreement, there’s no way for the U.S. to verify that it’s still not going on. “It’s extremely worrying,” said Lavrov, referring to Trump considering pulling out of the P5+1 Iranian Nuke Deal. “We will defend this document, this consensus, which was met with relief by the entire international community and genuinely strengthened both regional and international security,” said Lavrov, practically admitting that Iran was indeed working on an A-bomb.
Iran denied that its nuclear enrichment program had any military component, namely, working on an A-bomb. Yet Lavrov said the international community was met with relief because they believed Iran’s nuclear enrichment program worked on more than reactor fuel. When Trump talks of the Nuke agreement being a bad deal, he’s referring to its lack of verification, barring IAEA inspectors from entering military sites. Lavrov likes to point fingers but the most egregious violator of sovereignty in recent years is Russia, hands down. “If you simply condemn and threaten, then we’re going to antagonize countries over whom we want to exert influence,” said Lavrov, referring to Trump’s threat to destroy North Korea. When you think that North Korea threatens the U.S. or its allies with nuclear annihilation, what’s Trump supposed to do, ignore the threats or interpret its meaning?
If Lavrov thought twice before criticizing Trump, he’d realize Trump said nothing about Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea. Barely mentioning Russia at all in his speech, Trump received plenty of flack for not calling out Russia for its aggression in Ukraine and elsewhere. Whatever the rhetoric coming out of Pyongyang, Lavrov should show more deference to the U.S. for its tolerance of Russian aggression in Europe and elsewhere. Lavrov mentioned nothing of defending his North Korean ally, the only Stalinist regime left in Asia. Soviet influence in the post-WW II era threatened to turn the world red, something that didn’t happen, largely because of its economic failures. When you consider economic failures in Cuba and North Korea, it’s proof that totalitarian regimes poorly manage economies. Lavrov knows Russia’s economy improved when it opened up capital markets.
Condemning Trump’s speech as warmongering, Russia’s in no position to lecture the U.S. about threatening its neighbors. After Putin invaded Crimea, the Baltic States fear a return to the old Soviet-style domination of Eastern Europe. Asking for more NATO troops and missile defense, Poland and the Baltics tell the real story of Russian aggression in former Soviet satellites. “We have suspicions on at least three fronts that the Americans are creating weapons systems which violate or could violate the treaty obligations,” said Lavrov, diverting attention away from Moscow’s aggression toward Ukraine, Poland and Baltic States. Neither Moscow nor Beijing are under Kim Jong-un’s nuclear threats, only the United States. If Lavrov wants to put U.S.-Russian relation on the right track, he needs to put down the hammer in North Korea, telling Kim to stand down or lose Moscow’s support.
