Russia’s 72-year-old Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the West of trying to “cancel” the Russian Federation, similar rhetoric once reserved for former President Donald Trump, often accusing Democrats of “cancel culture,” erasing everything conservation, promoting a liberal agenda. Lavrov, now in a pitched battle with the United State through Ukrainian proxies, said the West is at “total war” with the Russian Federation, something Lavrov sees a reversing 50-years of détente. “The West has declared a total war on us, on the Russian world. Nobody makes any secret of this,” said Lavrov speaking to regional officials, reported by Tass Russian news agency. Lavrov finds himself preaching to the choir but not fence-sitters wanting to conduct business as usual with the Kremlin, despite 69-yea-old Russian President Vladimir Putin giving the green light to war Feb. 24.
Lavrov’s a product of a closed culture, walled of by choice from the modern world, subject to the same myths and racist tropes of past generations. It wasn’t that long ago when Lavrov opined that Adolf Hitler had Jewish blood or that self-loathing Jews during the Holocaust joined the Gestapo to murder fellow Jews. To Lavrov, these specious tropes a part of culture that produced the 1902 “Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion,” a piece of fake fiction that exposed Jews for trying to take over the world. Hilter used the Protocols as justification for Mein Kampf, his best-selling book that blamed the Jews for all of Germany’s ills. So when Lavrov says the West is engaged in “cancel culture,” he’s trying to excuse the Ukraine War that watched unprecedented carnage and destruction over the last three months. Lavrov wants sympathy from the West but won’t get it.
Putin was the one repeating Trump’s past statements stating that the West engaged in “cancel culture” against Russia. Lavrov said that conservative movement in the U.S., U.K and France also dealt with cancel culture, watching the April 25 defeat of 53-year-old French conservative politician Marine Le Pen. Whatever Lavrov’s arguments, the West is far more concerned about the possibility that Putin seeks to take over other European countries. “The culture of canceling Russia and everything related with our country has reached a point of absurdity,” Lavrov said, not realizing that the Feb. 24 Ukraine invasion harmed Russian credibility when it came to getting along with NATO countries. “Bans have been imposed on such classics as Tchaicovsky, Dostoyevsky, Tostoy and Pushkin. Persecution is underway against Russian culture and art workers,” Lavrov said, playing victim.
Lavrov said the 50-years of détente with the West has fallen apart, largely to the over-growth of NATO, now adding Sweden and Finland, both strong allies for years but now actually joining the alliance. Putin has no illusions about Sweden and Finland being long-standing parts of the Western Alliance. Western journalists point to Putin’s 2014 invasion of Crimea as proof that Putin has imperialistic motives. But Putin didn’t start the Feb. 24, 2014 CIA-backed coup that toppled the pro-Kremlin Kiev government of Viktor Yanukovych. No one in the Western press wants to bring up a CIA-backed coup that turned Ukraine into a pro-Western power. Had the coup not occurred, there would be no 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Journalists do their best today to spin only one side of the story. Putin recklessly seized Crimea March 1 for no reason, only unprovoked aggression.
Lavrov, who used to spend much of his time in Washington and other foreign capitals relished the opportunity to see real changes in the Soviet Union then the Russian Federation. No one likes fine dining and partying more than Lavrov, who now finds himself a pariah. “We must realize that it has exposed the West’s real attitude to the beautiful slogans that were put forward 30 years ago after the end of the Cold War,” Lavrov said. “The calls for universal humanitarian values for building a common European home form the Atlantic to the Pacific. Now we can see the real worth of these fine words,” Lavrov said, genuinely regretting the state of affair today. But to reverse the current nightmare for Ukraine and Russia, both countries would have to go to the Istanbul peace table and figure out how to stop the conflict. With the U.S. giving Ukraine unlimited cash-and-arms, the war goes on.
Lavrov needs to know that the current deteriorated state of Western-Russian relations could change but only if the war moves to Istanbul. Zelensky shows zero instinct in resolving the conflict, largely because he’s collected from U.S. taxpayers billions to pay for the Ukrainian government and war. Biden’s been on the wrong track that he can defeat the Russian army or at least weaken Putin’s army to the point ut could not longer wage war. To do that, the U.S. and Ukraine would have spend much more their Gross Domestic Products waging war into the indefinite future. Biden and Zelensky must decide how much further they want to push their war against the Russian Federation. When you look at the map of Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine, Putin now controls most of Ukraine’s Black Sea coast. If the war goes much longer, the situation for Ukraine only gets worse.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
