In comments made Sept. 7 to students and faculty at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov indicated how deeply the systematic betrayal of their relationship with the West has affected Russia and Russians, and spoke of the steep climb required to restore even the semblance of harmony in the world, and that in an entirely different way than has occurred over the last decades or centuries.

“Never in our history has anyone wanted to see us strong,” Lavrov said. “Much has been said about this, including by political scientists I respect, who are present here and regularly convey this idea through the media—this is our perception of the world. Beginning with Ivan the Terrible, then in the 19th and 20th centuries, especially after the Great October Socialist Revolution, no one has ever wanted to see us strong.

“Many didn’t even want to communicate frankly with us. Yes, there were countries that, under certain rulers, were interested, purely by virtue of their human qualities, in maintaining normal relations with their Russian counterparts. In many cases, they were relatives, monarchical brothers. We all know this. But sincerity, based on the recognition of the historical, political, and economic necessity of living together, benefiting from each other, and not plotting schemes that would later backfire on the perpetrator, has been absent throughout our history.”

He mentioned Lend-Lease and the Arctic convoys, which played a role in the victory over fascism and the meeting at the Elbe. But even before the guns of WWII had fallen silent, he noted, Churchill was devising Operation Unthinkable. He then went through more recent history, the end of the Soviet Union, the attempt to bring Russia into a working relationship with the rest of Europe, the Fukuyama “end of history” bunkum, the promises of the Clinton administration—and then, the breaking of those promises. He then went over the more well-traveled ground of the Maidan and the phony Minsk agreements.