Russian FM calls Western pressure on cultural centres “frenzied”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has accused the West of a “frenzied onslaught” against Russian Houses and Russian Centres of Science and Culture.

Speaking at an international forum, he said they have now closed one of the most famous centres in Berlin simply because someone thought that the situation involving the discovery of some debris could be presented as the crash of a Russian drone, and that Russia should be punished for it, Caliber.Az reports, citing Russian media.

“They closed our Consulate General in Bonn — our largest consulate general in Europe, housed in the former embassy building from when Bonn was still the capital of West Germany,” the minister noted.

Lavrov added that the dispute also extends to culture, arguing that Russia and countries of the global majority are defending traditional values.

“This is also a struggle. The cancellation of culture reflects the fact that Russia, like the countries of the global majority, is defending traditional values in culture and in all spheres of our lives, while the West now considers this incompatible with so-called liberal values,” the Russian FM stressed.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov