Speaking at a May 6 wreath-laying ceremony before plaques at the Foreign Ministry building, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov forcefully denounced Great Britain’s treacherous role— historically and today—in attempting to destroy Russia (or the former Soviet Union). This same point has been made in recent days by high-level Russian security and defense officials.
The Foreign Minister pointed to “Operation Unthinkable,” a top-secret plan drafted by Britain’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill, in which non-Soviet Allied troops—also defeated Germans—would launch a massive assault on Red Army troops which dominated Eastern Europe on July 1, 1945, “with the aim (how familiar it sounds today) of inflicting a strategic defeat on it.” Had the plan been launched, it would have led to World War III. That experience, Lavrov said, “is invaluable for us now. It is about making coalitions based solely on our own interests, without being naive or giving excessive trust to empty promises.”
