Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov again lashed out at the “collective West” on Monday, saying that he, led by the United States, is waging an “undeclared hybrid war” against Moscow and trying to destabilize the political situation in Russia ahead of 2024. Presidential elections in the same way he would have done it in Ukraine in 2014 and tried to do it in Belarus six years later.

• “They clearly aim to undermine the political stability of our country, especially in the context of next year’s presidential elections.
• The vicious practice of interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign states does not stop, including through threats, blackmail, organizing color revolutions,” Lavrov said at a meeting of the ruling United Russia party, EFE reports.

The head of Russian diplomacy condemned that the “collective West” led by the United States is waging an “undeclared hybrid war” against Russia, repeating the rhetoric that the Kyiv regime is being used as a tool: “They supply modern weapons and ammunition.” I am sending instructors and mercenaries to the Nazis in Ukraine.”

• “Our enemies openly declare their goals: to defeat the Russian army on the battlefield, to undermine our political and economic sovereignty, to relegate Russia to the backyard of international politics,” Lavrov said.

In late April, the Kremlin said that despite “Western intentions to intervene,” Russia would hold local elections in September and a presidential election in March 2024, in which current Russian President Vladimir Putin, 71, is likely to run. to renew his powers.

In February, Putin said that both local and regional elections in September, as well as presidential elections, “will be held in strict accordance with the law, in compliance with all democratic constitutional procedures.”

The controversial 2020 constitutional reform allows Putin to run for re-election in both 2024 and 2030, EFE notes.

The war unleashed by Moscow in Ukraine is not an obstacle to the holding of elections: the State Duma (the lower house of the parliament) recently approved the organization of elections during the application of martial law both throughout the country and in certain territories where martial law is in force , as in the case of the Ukrainian regions annexed by the Kremlin – Donetsk, Luhansk (east), Kherson region and Zaporizhzhia (south). From now on, the Central Election Commission will be able to call elections or referenda after obtaining the consent of the Ministry of Defense and the Federal Security Service (FSB). (Source: Agerpres)