Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s answer to a question from the Moscow. Kremlin. Putin programme, Moscow, May 19, 2024

Question: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that President of Russia Vladimir Putin had cut off gas. When state leaders allow themselves to lie – how is that?

Sergey Lavrov: It was not only British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who said so. It was also German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who makes it sound phantasmagorical. Americans blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines that were to provide for Germany’s further prosperity. You all know what is happening to the Germany’s economy now.

To say that Russia cut off gas… And no one of them blushed. That’s the saddest thing. It means that the West has no politicians, who could talk on a pragmatic basis and factually. But they do not recognise facts, they twist them and are trying to prevent their population and electorate from obstructing this dead-end policy catastrophic for Europe.