Speaking on the sidelines of the SCO Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Panaji, Goa in India on May 5, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia would respond to the attempted attack on President Vladimir Putin with “concrete actions.” “We will respond not with talk about whether or not this is a ‘casus belli.’ We will respond with concrete actions,” he said. Lavrov said that his SCO colleagues had condemned Kiev’s actions in the drone attack on the Kremlin. Responding to the attack on May 4, the Foreign Ministry statement read: “This crime is aggravated by the fact that the Moscow Kremlin serves as the residence of the head of state. What makes the actions of the neo-Nazi Ukrainian authorities especially cynical is that they made an attempt to assassinate the President of Russia ahead of Victory Day and the May 9 Parade, where Great Patriotic War veterans, who had shed their blood in the fight against Nazism and fascism, including on Ukrainian territory, will be present….
“It has been an open secret for the international community that the Kiev regime enjoys the support of Western countries, which provide it with weapons, intelligence data, train its fighters and assign targets. The silence on behalf of the collective West demonstrates its connivance with the terrorist methods employed by the neo-Nazi extremist regime in Kiev.
“The Foreign Ministry believes that the international community and international organizations which are free from double standards and seek guidance from international law must condemn this new criminal undertaking by the Kiev regime. Kiev must be forced to live up to its commitments as regards fighting terrorism, international humanitarian law and human rights.
“The Foreign Ministry reaffirms that Russia reserves the right to take countermeasures in response to these outrageous acts of terrorism. Russia’s response will hinge on the assessment of the threats posed by Kiev to the leadership of our country,” the ministry statement concluded. (https://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/1867054/)
