SODOM & GOMORRAH: Yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov warned that western support for the Arab Spring could lead to “a very big war that will cause suffering not only to countries in the region, but also to states far beyond its boundaries.”
The foreign minister, who holds a news conference once a year, used this occasion to criticize foreign involvement in the Middle East and North Africa. Mr. Lavrov promised a Russian veto in the United Nations against any move to send troops into troubled countries like Syria. He said that Russia would likely be unable to prevent foreign intervention in Syria, but that any such intervention should take place on a unilateral basis.
Syria has of course been prominent in western news lately for the violent crackdown that’s been taking place against insurrectionary forces in the country. The Arab League and many in the West have called for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to put an end to the violence, but it’s clear that as long as the insurrection poses a threat to his government he will try to stop it.
During his conference, Mr. Lavrov accused the United States of attempting to overthrow the Russian government. Mr. Lavrov has, of course, been one of the few public officials in any country to identify (at least openly) the United States as the instigator of the Arab uprisings. The foreign minister warned that the United States and others were arming extremists in Syria, while the American ambassador accused Russia of supplying the incumbent government with munitions.
Michael McFaul, the current American ambassador to Moscow, has been attacked in the Russian media as “not being an expert on Russia” but instead being “an expert on promoting democracy.” Readers of this site will note that all American ambassadors are mere missionaries for the democratic cause.