MOSCOW: Russia on Friday warned allies across the former Soviet Union of the perils of aligning with the United States (US) after what Moscow said was a Western-backed coup bid in Georgia similar to Ukraine’s “Maidan” revolution of 2014.
While referring to the 2014 Maidan revolution, which toppled a pro-Russian president in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told state television that it is very similar to the Ukrainian Maidan.
“It seems to me that all the nations located around the Russian Federation should draw their own conclusions as to how dangerous it is to take a path towards engagement with the US’ zone of responsibility, the US zone of interests.”
The remarks from Vladimir Putin’s top diplomat indicate the nervousness in Moscow over the weakening of its authority everywhere, from Azerbaijan and Armenia in the South Caucasus to Tajikistan and Kazakhstan in Central Asia.
Putin casts the Ukraine war as an existential battle with the Western countries over the future of both Russia and its former Soviet and imperial satellites.
Washington, Brussels, and Nato say they are legitimately building ties with countries that became independent after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Lavrov says UN and West want to punish Russia
The US and the broader West, Lavrov said, wanted to punish Russia because it was perceived as “too independent a player,” which challenged the hegemony of the United States.
Lavrov, Putin’s foreign minister since 2004, said that events in Georgia were orchestrated from outside and motivated by a Western attempt to claw away Russia’s traditional allies.
He said Georgia’s law on foreign agents, which parliament dropped on Friday, had been used as a pretext “to start what is, essentially, an attempt to force a change of power.”
He did not present evidence to back his assertions. Opposition politicians and protesters in Georgia deny they are puppets.
They say they disagreed with the proposed law and want a Western future which Russia, which fought a war against Georgia in 2008, does not offer.
