Sean Miller – Info Wars Dec 26, 2024

On Christmas, 60 Minutes ran a televised-only interview with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The official went from talking about Russia’s reluctance to launch a nuclear strike against the West, then warned the West that Russia’s patience is not infinite regarding defending itself. He said there would be no winners of a nuclear conflict, despite this he insinuated that Russia will defend its legitimate national interests ‘by all available means’. His dialogue always appeared to echo the manta of restraint, however.

“…we are not interested in escalating the issue of nuclear weapons usage risks. We firmly adhere to the principle I mentioned earlier: there can be no victors in a nuclear war. President Vladimir Putin has reiterated this on numerous occasions,” Lavrov said. “Nonetheless, I would caution against testing our patience and resolve to defend our legitimate national interests by all available means.”

He explained how Russians are patient people, yet when they get to the point of actually acting, they do so strategically and powerfully.

“It is not imperative to act immediately following a bandit strike on Kazan, or the Kursk, Bryansk, and Belgorod Regions,” the Russian official said. “We can afford to bide our time. We are a patient people. Yet, sometimes one must ‘measure seven times, cut once.’ It is essential to measure carefully to ensure that when we do act, it is with complete efficacy.”

Lavrov explained that the West is even more bullish on the talk of using nuclear weapons with statements far exceeding the rhetoric coming from Russia.

“Any other proposals or similar remarks, suggesting the possibility of nuclear conflict, have emanated solely from Western capitals. The Chief of the German Army’s General Staff remarked a year ago that Russia should not intimidate them excessively, reminding them that NATO is a nuclear alliance. Everyone recalls Liz Truss’s statement, in her capacity as Prime Minister of Great Britain, where she expressed no hesitation in pressing the nuclear button. French officials have also reiterated their status as a nuclear power,” Lavrov said. “Recently, Pentagon generals have openly deliberated on the potential for ‘limited nuclear strikes’ with the Russian Federation, with the intention to ensure they emerge victorious from such an ‘exchange.’ We directly inquired (since it was indeed a general who made the statement) about the meaning behind this. Their response was far from satisfactory, as they attempted to downplay the significance of such declarations, claiming they were purely theoretical. In practice, nothing of the sort was intended. But can such rhetoric be regarded as a serious expression of opinion from an official military department representative?”

Lavrov said that a Russian initiative in 2021 reiterated the 1987 Gorbachev-Reagan principle that nuclear war would have no victors and should never be sparked off.

“We have never initiated a discussion regarding what should be done with nuclear weapons and whether they can be used,” Lavrov said, omitting the aforementioned updated nuclear doctrine. “On the contrary, it was at Russia’s initiative that in 2021, first at the level of Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, and subsequently among the leaders of the entire G5 nuclear-armed states – the permanent members of the Security Council – the 1987 Gorbachev-Reagan principle was reaffirmed: there can be no victors in a nuclear war, thus it should never be instigated. This was a Russian initiative.”

Notably however, on November 19 Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law an updated nuclear doctrine which allows Russia to respond to non-nuclear attacks with nuclear weapons, including responding to ancillary countries indirectly involved in the event (such as nuking the U.S. for supplying Ukraine with conventional weapons they use against Russia).

Regarding the nuclear issue as it relates to Ukraine, on Wednesday Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Ukraine is not able to build nuclear weapons on it’s own, if they attain them it is due to being given them by the West. Notably, Russia already gave Belarus nuclear weapons and the West had mulled giving Ukraine nukes as well, but that escalation was reportedly halted.

The recent Ukrainian drone attacks on civilian high-rise buildings in Russia was brought up by 60 Minutes.

“Regarding the incessant terrorist acts perpetrated by the Kiev regime, which deliberately targets purely civilian structures such as residential buildings, hospitals, clinics, shops, and places where people congregate and relax – this is outrageous,” Lavrov said, after refusing to associate it with the events of September 11 in New York City. “It is a blatant violation of all anti-terrorism conventions and relevant UN Security Council resolutions. We express our condemnation, although regrettably, almost no one in the West and none of the leaders of international organisations, including the UN, the OSCE, UNESCO, and others, join us in this denunciation. Naturally, we do not stop there.”

Lavrov discussed the difficulty in getting a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Ukraine, touching on the upcoming switch in U.S. leadership by saying he’s skeptical if a Donald Trump administration will actually change the situation. This is likely due to the U.S. being just one player in the Ukraine war while Western European countries would still be a factor regardless of Trump’s foreign policy objectives.

“Everyone thinks the arrival of the Trump Administration will change things. There is much speculation about this going on. As I earlier mentioned, we have no illusions,” he said. “There is a fairly robust bipartisan consensus in Washington on supporting the Kiev regime. U.S. doctrinal documents describe our country as an adversary that needs to be ‘strategically defeated.’ In free speeches, the Biden administration officials have even called us an enemy. We have never claimed that with the Trump Administration in the White House the negotiating process on global security and Ukraine will begin no matter what. This will not be, as many are now hoping, an inevitable outcome.”

Numerous scandals from before the 2022 Russian Special Military Operation link the U.S. Democrat Party to Ukraine. So a change in U.S. leadership is still notable regardless of the global stage.

Lavrov reiterated the numerous instances of Russia seeking a peaceful resolve to the Ukraine conflict since the CIA overthrew the country in 2014, something detailed by Infowars.

“We hear about Donald Trump’s interest, who appointed Keith Kellogg as his special envoy for Ukraine, in stopping this war as soon as possible. We have always been in favour of it never beginning which fact is corroborated by our support for the document signed by Yanukovich and the opposition in February 2014. It was guaranteed by European countries, but the opposition tore it up the next morning,” he said. “We also supported the Minsk agreements, which stopped the Kiev regime’s terrorist attack against its citizens in Donbass. President Vladimir Putin keeps referring to the fact that we supported the Istanbul Accords in April 2022, which were also largely torn up at the behest of the West. President Putin has repeatedly stressed that we never walk away from talks. We need to see serious, concrete proposals. When we have them, we will decide on how to respond to them based on our national interests, the goals of the special military operation, and President Vladimir Putin’s June 14 speech at the Foreign Ministry.”

Interestingly, 60 Minutes asked Lavrov a light-hearted question at the end of the interview, yet he brought the topic back to the conflict, perhaps setting a wartime mood for the end of the television show.

“On a lighter note, have you had the chance to decorate your New Year tree? Do you sense that holiday cheer?” 60 Minutes asked.

“The cheer is combative, because easing up during the New Year holidays is not an option. Some serious politicians and analysts do not rule out the possibility of provocations from Kiev’s nationalists and their Western backers during the New Year holidays and Orthodox Christmas,” Lavrov said. “We will observe this holiday as we conduct an alert and active analysis of ongoing developments.”

The notion of a Western mainstream media outlet like 60 Minutes running a television-only interview with a top Russian official on the nuclear war topic, on Christmas, is noteworthy. JustJared (a multi-media entertainment group) reported in 2023 that the average age of a CBS viewer (the network that hosts 60 Minutes) is 63. With Christmas being a time that family gets together, perhaps with the television on in the background, the choice of medium and air date may be significant, as it likely means the message is being delivered to a targeted group for a certain purpose.

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