Russia says US' 'decapitating strike’ warning to Kremlin aims at assassinating Putin

Russia’s top diplomat Sergey Lavrov, in an interview with Russian news agency TASS, said that statements made by anonymous Pentagon officials about a ‘decapitating strike’ on the Kremlin essentially amounted to a threat aimed at physically eliminating Russian President Vladimir Putin. "The one who’s gone the farthest of all the others is in Washington. There are some ‘anonymous officials’ from the Pentagon who have actually enunciated threats to deliver a ‘decapitating strike’ on the Kremlin, which is in fact an assassination threat against the Russian president," Lavrov told TASS. "If someone really has such ideas, then this someone should think long and hard about the possible consequences of such plans," the Foreign Minister underlined.

Lavrov went on to target western countries saying, "It seems that they have shed all vestiges of respectability". "The notorious (ex-British PM) Liz Truss is a vivid example given that she directly and publicly said during her pre-election campaign that she was ready to order a nuclear strike," Lavrov claimed. Blaming Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelenskyy of “crossing the line”, Lavrov said that the Ukrainian head had extended his favor with NATO states by urging them to deliver preventive nuclear strikes against Moscow. Russia and the United States are unable to maintain a normal path of a conversation due to the confrontational course assumed by US President Joe Biden, Lavrov noted.

United States is benefitting from the ‘hot conflict’ in Ukraine: Lavrov

The United States and its NATO allies are seeking to win a victory over Russia on the ‘battlefield’ to destroy our country, said Lavrov in the interview. "The actions by the collective West and their puppet Zelensky confirm the global nature of the Ukrainian crisis. It is no secret that the strategic goal of the US and its NATO allies is to win a victory over Russia on the battlefield as a mechanism of weakening or even destroying our country," Lavrov said. "Our opponents will just do about anything to achieve this goal," he added. According to Russia’s top diplomat, the beneficiary of a ‘hot conflict’ is the United States who has been seeking to get the most out of it both economically and strategically. "Washington has also been solving a key geopolitical goal of breaking the traditional bonds between Russia and Europe and making their European satellites even more dependent on them," Lavrov emphasized.