Lavrov pointed to the West's escalation of provocative military exercises near Russia

Western countries continue to step up provocative military exercises near Russian territory. This was announced on May 29 by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during the international hearings on security in Eurasia.

He recalled that in 2014, the West supported the "bloody coup d'etat" in Kiev, prepared by former US President Barack Obama. He stressed that as a result, Russians and Russian-speaking residents of Ukraine were subjected to total discrimination.

In addition, the Minister noted the non-negotiability of the European Union (EU) in the context of the Minsk agreements, which were not implemented in 2015. According to him, at the moment, the European side is pursuing the same goal as then — the rearmament of Ukraine to continue the conflict.

Lavrov stressed that the Russian Federation would not have to conduct a special military operation if the treaty with the United States and the agreement with NATO on legally binding security guarantees for all countries, which Russian leader Vladimir Putin advocated in 2021, were adopted.

"After the start of the special military operation, they continued the systematic militarization of the Kiev regime, forbade it to conclude peace on the terms of returning to a neutral, non—aligned and nuclear-weapon-free status, dragged previously neutral Finland and Sweden into NATO, and continue to increase provocative military exercises near our borders, on land and at sea," the minister said.

In particular, he stressed that Moscow records attempts by the West to militarize the Arctic region. According to him, a dangerous development is taking place due to the lack of a union in Europe that could combine the regulatory and institutional framework to collectively address security issues.

The basis for action: Russia is ready to respond to NATO's provocations in the Baltic

How and why is the West escalating military tensions in the region

On April 30, Nikolai Patrushev, Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation and Chairman of the Maritime Board, said that due to the current military and political situation, additional measures are needed to neutralize threats to Russia's security at sea. According to him, we can now see a consistent increase in NATO's military activity in the Baltic and North Seas, in the North Atlantic and the Asia-Pacific region.