Oh?
Russia's foreign minister took aim at the West on Friday, saying its philosophies are out of step with the times and that it is struggling to accept what he called its diminishing dominance in world affairs.
NATO has no capability and no interest in invading Russia. And now the Russians say that the West isn't even an ideological threat.
So why are the Russians such aggressive paranoid jerks about the West?
Maybe the Russians will surprise me and this is all about preparing the Russian people to ignore a now-weak NATO and instead focus on the China threat after years of quietly appeasing China and hiding that appeasement by strident talk about NATO.
European Russia should be a safe rear area for the China front.
Perhaps this potential pivot is why the Russian Tsentr 2019 exercise was so low key. Which took place in a former Soviet region that China is pushing into--but is not terribly welcome:
Notwithstanding twenty years of increasingly prominent political, economic and security relations, China remains poorly understood and even feared among Central Asians. Despite its emergence as the second-largest economic world power in less than three decades, its development model is unpopular compared to others, in particular that of Russia, which a majority of Central Asians still view as a benchmark. Strikingly, since the 2000s, articles critical of China have proliferated in Central Asian media. Although regularly praised for its commitment to both the regional and global economies, China’s presence and investments are at the same time disparaged as self-serving, excessive; in addition, they are even seen as impeding the development and independence of the region.
Or Lavrov's comment is just be another case of #WhyRussiaCan'tHaveNiceThings.
It could go either way.
