Lavrov misinforms: Russia strives for fair cooperation without conflicts

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has misinformed that Russia supposedly strives for fair and conflict-free cooperation, when it is known that it launched an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

What did Lavrov say?

"Russia strives for fair cooperation without conflicts and does not want to quarrel with anyone, but insists on respecting international law and the UN Charter. We do not want to quarrel with anyone. We want to work honestly. We do not believe that it is necessary to break the international legal foundation of the world order in the form of the UN Charter. It must be respected absolutely," he said, using the examples of Serbia, Ukraine and Crimea.

"When they rebelled against this and held a referendum, the West said: No, this is impossible, this is a violation of territorial integrity. What about Serbia? No, this is something else," Lavrov said, Sputnik writes in the news with the disinformation headline "Lavrov on the West's double standards using the examples of Serbia and Crimea."

Analyze:

Lavrov has claimed that Russia strives for “fair, conflict-free cooperation,” but the concrete facts speak to the contrary: in February 2022, Russia launched an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, causing casualties, massive destruction, and a large-scale humanitarian crisis, an act that directly contradicts the principles of the UN Charter, which Lavrov claims to defend – specifically Article 2.4, which prohibits the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of another state.

https://www.eeas.europa.eu/node/41530_en?

So, when one state militarily invades another, it cannot claim to be "against conflicts."

Through disinformation statements, Lavrov aims to mask Russia's aggression and serious violations of international law. He ignores the facts, distorts the law, and uses false comparisons to relativize the Russian invasion. Meanwhile, he mentions Kosovo with the aim of undermining trust in international institutions, claiming that "the West has double standards."

https://legal.un.org/repertory/

This comparison is manipulative and legally incorrect since Crimea was annexed by Russia through a so-called “referendum” under military occupation, which neither the OSCE nor the United Nations recognized as legitimate, while Kosovo, on the other hand, declared independence after a decade of repression and war in which NATO intervened to stop ethnic cleansing, and the International Court of Justice’s 2010 ruling legitimized its declaration of independence as in accordance with international law.

https://www.icj-cij.org/case/141?

So, all of this proves once again Lavrov's intention to mask Russia's aggression in Ukraine.

/NA