Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned of a global arms buildup amidst “unprecedented” anti-Russian sentiment in the West.
Russia and the U.S. are locked in mutual accusations of violating a 30-year-old treaty that bans intermediate-range cruise missiles. News emerged last month that the U.S. is scheduled to develop two new types of missiles under a Nuclear Posture Review to be released next month.
“The level of Russophobia is really unprecedented,” Lavrov said in an interview with the Kommersant business daily published Sunday.
“This was not the case during the Cold War, where there were certain rules, mutual decorum. All decorum has now been cast aside,” he said.
The foreign minister noted that previous U.S.-Russian rivalry was based on “the negative stability of two rigid blocs and two world systems — socialist and imperialist.”
Despite the current absence of ideological tensions, Lavrov warned that “the material arms buildup is being ramped up.”
Lavrov’s comments came less than a week after he criticized the new U.S. national defense strategy as being “confrontational” for singling out Russia and China as Washington’s main competitors.
