Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Western elites of being driven by so-called “Epstein instincts” as he raised the specter of a nuclear confrontation over the war in Ukraine.
His remarks followed recent claims by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) that France and the United Kingdom were covertly discussing plans to supply Ukraine with a nuclear weapon — an allegation that Western officials have not substantiated.
Appearing on a weekly state television program and responding to those allegations, Lavrov was asked whether Western leaders had “lost all instincts of self-preservation” by allegedly contemplating such a move.
“Their instincts are mostly Epstein-like, as I understand it, in that society,” he said in comments aired Sunday, invoking the scandal surrounding the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“But instincts that concern the fate of their own states and caring for their own people have clearly been degraded in recent years,” he added.
Lavrov’s comments echoed rhetoric circulating among pro-war Russian military bloggers to describe the United States and Israel as an “Epstein coalition” following their recent strikes on Iran, implying that the conflict in the Middle East was started as a distraction from the Epstein scandal.
The Kremlin has called the alleged plans to supply Ukraine with a nuclear weapon “absolutely crazy.”
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