Prior to departing for the BRICS Foreign Ministers meeting in New Delhi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gave an extensive interview on May 12 to Runjhun Sharma, host of the RT podcast India, Russia and the World, in which he lit into what he called the “neocolonial methods” being applied to India and other nations of the Global South.
“They put pressure on everyone, demanding that they should not purchase Russian oil, and this is unfair play. These are colonial, or neocolonial, methods. ‘You shouldn’t purchase cheap Russian oil. You should purchase my expensive oil, and buy expensive LNG from the US. We will rule the world by controlling global energy,’” Lavrov said, adding that not all countries “cave in to such pressure.”