MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st September, 2021) Ukraine is using groundless rhetoric to encourage anti-Russia sentiment, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday, referring to several recent statements made by the Ukrainian authorities.
Most recently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Russian gas the dirtiest in the world, claiming that there were large methane emissions and corruption in the Russian gas industry. Zelenskyy made the comment during his August visit to Washington, where he discussed the Nord Stream 2 project with US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
"President Zelenskyy himself is making some statements about our gas being the dirtiest in the world ... it is certainly not very smart, to be honest. This is a desire to artificially maintain and increase anti-Russian, russophobic rhetoric and activities in order to keep the West in support of the Ukrainian government," Lavrov said at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO).
He called Kiev's recent anti-Russian statements, such as claims that the Baptism of Russia is a purely Ukrainian holiday and that Rus' is actually Ukraine's original name, "verbal equilibristics."
Bilateral relations between Moscow and Kiev deteriorated in 2014 after Crimea reunited with Russia following a people's referendum held on the peninsula. The West sided with Ukraine in blaming the crisis on Russia, while Moscow rejected all accusations as baseless.
In July, Berlin and Washington signed an agreement providing for the completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project without US sanctions. Ukraine and several eastern European states have been calling on the European Union to abandon the project, citing the bloc's perceived over-dependence on Moscow. Russia has repeatedly advised against politicizing the project.
