Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that "recent developments on the international stage have unveiled the masks of the West, which seeks to impose its own order on the world." During a meeting of BRICS foreign ministers in Nizhny Novgorod, Lavrov remarked, "Recent international events have stripped the masks from the faces of those who have, until now, claimed in their rhetoric to have an exclusive right to determine what are called global values under the guise of a rules-based order."
He noted that "supporters of this concept are trying to impose standards and mechanisms for interaction that benefit only them, with the aim of replacing honest equal dialogue with narrow alliances that operate in secrecy and claim the right to speak and act on behalf of peoples and the entire world."
Lavrov also pointed out that "at the same time, the United States and its allies are not giving up on attempts to maintain their elusive dominance and slow down the objective processes of forming a multipolar world." He concluded by stating, "They use economic tools as weapons, through imposing sanctions and financial blackmail, and try to influence the choices of development models and trading partners by sovereign nations."
