US backs coup attempts whenever it can benefit, says Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

Hitting out at the US after the aborted mutiny in Russia last weekend, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday said that Washington enthusiastically supports regime change whenever it can benefit from the process. In an interview to Russia Today, Lavrov added that if a protest movement targets a government more pliant to American interests, Washington will inevitably reject it. “There have been numerous attempts at regime change around the world in recent years and they were met with a different response on the part of the US, depending on who was in power and who was trying to carry out the coup,” Lavrov said. “Where the West is happy with the current government, in such situations no protest can be legitimate. But where the government doesn’t reflect the interests of the hegemon and is pursuing the national interests, in those cases we see various unlawful forces are being stimulated to attack the authorities,” the Foreign Minister added. Giving an example of such a differentiated approach by the US and its allies, Lavrov pointed to regime change in Ukraine in 2014 and the conflict in Yemen the next year. The so-called Maidan coup in Kyiv was a “revolt that happened against the legitimate president” and which was marred by “bloody provocations against the unarmed police,” he told Russia Today. The diplomat recalled Ukraine’s democratically elected leader Viktor Yanukovich had been forced to flee violence despite his government and the opposition reaching an EU-sponsored agreement on settling the crisis just hours before that. “There were no protests against that insurgency from the US or its European allies. So, they just recognised it as a zig-zag in the democratic process,” he said. “All those years, all our attempts to bring the Ukrainian situation to a political settlement were met with the response [from the Americans and Europeans] that Yanukovich left the country,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by Russia Today. At the same time, he said, when Yemen’s Western-backed leader Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi “ran to Saudi Arabia” in 2015 from advancing Houthi rebels, “we’ve heard the West saying that he’s still a legitimate president and that he needs to be installed back in Yemen. And only after that the settlement process will start,” he pointed out. The top Russian diplomat also said there was an attempted coup in Gambia in 2014 and “the White House announced that the US will never recognise the forces that seized power in the country by unconstitutional means.” Prigozhin stages insurrection Russia’s notorious mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin late on Friday staged an apparent insurrection, sending an armoured convoy towards Moscow and raising questions about Vladimir Putin’s grip on power. Prigozhin declared a “march of justice” to oust Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and General Staff chief Gen. Valery Gerasimov, during which the mercenaries captured the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and then marched on Moscow. The rebellion ended on Saturday when Prigozhin ordered his troops back. The Kremlin said it had made a deal that the mercenary chief will move to Belarus and receive an amnesty, along with his soldiers. The mutiny marked the biggest challenge to President Vladimir Putin in more than 20 years of rule. It was unclear what would ultimately happen to Prigozhin and his forces. Few details of the deal were released either by the Kremlin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who brokered it. Prigozhin’s whereabouts have been unclear since he drove out of Rostov-on-Don in an SUV Saturday. ‘US goal is to secure profit’ Commenting on Washington’s reaction to the aborted mutiny, Lavrov said the US’ goal in any situation is to secure profit for itself and it readily goes against its stated principles when it sees an opportunity. US media have claimed that the US opted to postpone planned sanctions against the private military company Wagner Group, whose leader Prigozhin tried to use the force to oust senior Russian Generals. The US wanted to avoid the optics that it was siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the turmoil, the reports said. “This is just another piece of evidence that the US position depends on what it wants from every particular player, be it on the international arena or in some particular nation,” Lavrov told Russia Today about the reports. “The US has repeatedly shown bias and vested interests regarding the Ukrainian conflict,” he said, adding, “They are the ones waging a war against Russia with Ukrainian hands, after all.” With inputs from agencies Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.