Russia Won't Allow Pressures From the US, Authorities Say

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov remarked on Tuesday that his country wouldn't let the U.S. direct future relations from a superior position, and it will consider this behavior as hostilities.

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The official remarked that "taken as a whole, the historical West dominated the world for five hundred years. However, there is no doubt that it now sees that this era is coming to a close while clinging to the status it used to enjoy and putting artificial brakes on the objective process consisting in the emergence of a polycentric world."

The comments follow the aftermath of the Biden-Putin summit on June 16, largely regarded as a success. However, Lavrov  warned that in the aftermath of the meeting, "U.S. officials, including those who participated in the Geneva meeting, started asserting what seemed to be foregone tenets, perorating that they had “made it clear” to Moscow, “warned it, and stated their demands."

"Moreover, all these “warnings” went hand in hand with threats: if Moscow does not accept the “rules of the road” outlined in Geneva in a matter of several months, it would come under renewed pressure," Lavrov added.

During the Geneva summit, Biden and Putin talked about "cybersecurity, the operation of diplomatic missions, the fate of imprisoned Russian and U.S. citizens and several regional conflicts," as well as confirmed that "nuclear war is unacceptable."

Nonetheless, the Foreign Minister recalled that mutual respect on an equal basis is the only way forward. "The Russian leader made it clear, including in his public statements, that finding a mutually acceptable balance of interests strictly on a parity basis is the only way to deliver on any of these tracks," Lavrov said.