Lavrov: After joining the regions, the nuclear doctrine will come into effect

Lavrov: “If the regions become part of Russia after the referendums, our nuclear doctrine will be applied. You need to read Putin more often and more carefully”…

At the UN General Assembly, journalists asked Sergei Lavrov a flurry of questions about Russia’s next steps in the war in Ukraine, but he also closed one of the most important questions, which is that if the regions become part of Russia after the referendums, then Russian nuclear doctrine will spread and on them.

“You should read Putin more often and more carefully,” he told a journalist who asked him about the developing conflict, denouncing the West’s “unprecedented” and “grotesque” Russophobia.

To repeated questions about whether Russia would use nuclear weapons to protect the liberated territories of Ukraine, which would join Russia after the referendums, he replied:

“The entire territory of the Russian Federation, the territories that are included and can be included in the Constitution, are unconditionally under the full protection of the state. All laws, doctrines, concepts and strategies of the Russian Federation apply to the entire territory of the Russian Federation.”

The statements come after former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, explicitly warned on Thursday that any weapons in Moscow’s arsenal, including strategic nuclear weapons, could be used to defend territories included in Russia.

Russia accuses the US and other countries of being parties to the conflict for sending weapons to help Ukraine defend itself. Lavrov said Russia was ready to negotiate with the West, but would not take the initiative. “It is always better to discuss than not to discuss. But in the situation we are in, Russia is simply not going to take the first steps,” he said.

Speaking to a crowded auditorium for about an hour, Lavrov criticized the US and its allies for years of “selfishness.” But when asked if China was pressuring Russia to end the war, Lavrov first disagreed with the journalist’s choice of words before turning around and saying, “Tell your readers I evaded the question.”

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