Russia’s Ryabkov Warns, U.S.-Russian Relations Could Descend ‘Into the Abyss of an Open Armed Conflict’

May 6, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov warned in a May 5 TV interview that “We are working on preventing a fall of our relations with the U.S. into the abyss of an open armed conflict. We are already on the verge of this abyss.” He said that “the anger and hatred towards Russia with which Washington acts in a situation in which it frankly should think of its own safety, is inexplicable.” At the moment, “no real diplomacy” about Ukraine is happening, because the U.S. “has bet on further escalation.”

Ryabkov also warned that Russia is “literally ready to use any means at its disposal” to deter threats to its security and the safety of its leadership. As for Washington’s denial of any involvement in the drone attacks on the Kremlin, Ryabkov said, according to TASS, that their statements of non-involvement are “not convincing anyone,” and are reminiscent of “how they attempted to pretty much blame us for the bombing of the Nord Stream,” Ryabkov said.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was also outspoken this weekend about how low relations with the U.S. have sunk. In comment to reporters after a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Goa, India, Lavrov said that Moscow has “never refused to settle issues arising from the actions of the U.S.,” but “without solving the main geopolitical problem—that of the West aspiring to hold onto its hegemony and impose its own will on all the others,—it is impossible to resolve crises in Ukraine and elsewhere in the world... All this has to be discussed, of course, not with Zelensky, who is a puppet in the hands of the West, but directly with his masters,” Lavrov said, noting that such talks would take place “sooner or later.”