Russia calls on Central Asia’s nations to take the utmost care when building relationships with the West, the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Galuzin, told TASS in an interview on February 23.
“We and our Central Asian friends remember what the American good offices turn into. What ended, for example, the recent Afghan epopee of the United States? It ended up in nothing but chaos and ruins,” said Galuzin. “In today's increasingly multipolar world there is no more room for Washington’s democratizering experiments, which, at best, end in color revolutions.”
“In this situation, we call on our Central Asian friends to take the utmost care when building relationships with the Western countries,” said the Russian deputy minister. “We are convinced that stability and security of Central Asian countries and the CIS member nations as a whole is, first of all, the task of our states and not of extra-regional players pursuing, as it was note above, dubious goals. To successfully solve this problem, we have all the tools – CIS, CSTO, relevant bilateral agreements.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had earlier stated that the West puts pressure on Central Asia’s nations and demands that they join sanctions against Moscow.
lenta.ru reported that speaking at a press conference, top Russian diplomat noted on January 18 that “the European Union, the United States and Japan demand that Central Asian nations refuse cooperation with Russia, because, in their opinion, Russia will lose in the war with the West, and propose to take the position of the “winning side.”
“In addition to such verbal influences, there is serious pressure with threats: you will lose our markets and the investments that we were going to make in your countries, don't you dare help Russia bypass sanctions,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by lenta.ru.
Russian foreign minister noted that the Central Asian nations’ governments are forced to take into account such threats.
