European statements about war with Russia could become a "self-fulfilling prophecy" – Russian foreign minister

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has claimed that calls by European leaders to prepare for a possible armed confrontation with Russia could provoke a war.

Source: Lavrov speaking at a final press conference at the UN General Assembly in New York, as quoted by Russian Kremlin-aligned media outlets

Details: Lavrov dismissed warnings about a possible Russian attack on Europe as "nonsense". Meanwhile, he criticised European countries for investing heavily in arms production and preparing their defences.

Lavrov claimed that European investment in weapons could ultimately prompt an attack by Europe on Russia and said that, in such an event, this would provoke a completely different response which would be "short".

Lavrov completely ignored the fact that Europe's military build-up and preparations for self-defence are a direct response to the Kremlin's systematic nuclear threats and hybrid aggression in a number of EU countries. In particular, Russian military aircraft have repeatedly entered the airspace of NATO member states.

In addition, during large-scale attacks on Ukraine, Russian kamikaze drones and missiles have repeatedly crossed borders and fallen on Polish and Romanian territory.

Quote from Lavrov: "We have no intention to fight Europe, to engage in warfare with Europe; that is utter nonsense. But Europe is preparing for war with us... This could become a self-fulfilling prophecy, such a position, because they are investing enormous amounts of money in arms production.

And at a certain juncture, a certain individual engaged in misadventures (there are many of those right now) will say: 'We've accumulated so much, what should we do with it? Oh, yes, we promised to attack Russia.' And under that scenario, they would attack us. As the president [Putin] said, we will not do so and he also said that it would be a completely different war, and it would be short." [Ukrainska Pravda does not refer to Vladimir Putin as Russian president – ed.]

Details: Lavrov's assurances that Russia "does not want war" echo statements made by the Russian leadership before previous acts of aggression. Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Russian diplomats repeatedly denied plans to attack Ukraine before Russia's invasion in 2014 and immediately before the full-scale invasion in February 2022.

In particular, on 21 January 2022, a month before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Lavrov insisted at a press conference in Geneva following bilateral talks with then US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Russia had "never threatened the Ukrainian people" and had no intention of attacking anyone, while troop movements were purely an "internal matter".

On 15 February, he described warnings from Western intelligence agencies and media reports as "information terrorism".

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeatedly insisted in February 2022 that Russia had "never attacked anyone first". In particular, on 15 February, he described reports that Russia was preparing an invasion as an "unprecedented information campaign aimed at escalating tensions".

"Throughout its entire history, Russia has never attacked anyone first. And Russia, which has lived through so many wars, is the last country in Europe that would even want to utter the word 'war'," Peskov said on the Rossiya 1 television channel four days before the full-scale invasion.

Putin himself said at an expanded meeting of the Russian Defence Ministry Board on 21 December 2021 that "armed conflicts and bloodshed are absolutely not our choice; we do not want events to develop in this way".

Six days before the full-scale invasion, on 18 February 2022, Putin said at a joint press conference with self-proclaimed Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko that large-scale Russian military exercises were "purely defensive in nature and pose no threat to anyone".

"I'm a little late. I was just double-checking whether we're invading or not. No, we're not invading," the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said sarcastically as she opened a regular briefing on 16 February 2022.

On the same day, she wrote on Telegram: "A request to the US and UK mass disinformation media... Please publish the schedule of our 'invasions' for the coming year. I'd like to plan my holiday."

Background:

• On 10 September, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev threatened to wipe Lithuania "off the map" if nuclear weapons were deployed on its territory, and claimed that its NATO allies would not dare invoke Article 5 on collective defence.
• On 11 September, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov threatened Vilnius, saying that if nuclear weapons were deployed in Lithuania, the country would come under the sights of Russian nuclear weapons.
• On 21 September, it was reported that intelligence officials from three EU countries believed Moscow was planning to step up provocations against NATO in the coming months.
• On 25 September, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti published a column headlined "Russia is in for another SVO. It will be very short", which threatened Lithuania with a nuclear strike. The article was subsequently deleted.

This news has been updated since publication.

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