Russia Accuses United States Of Being A Global Bully, Blames America For Conflict In Ukraine

Russia is taking on the United States, using an appearance at the U.N. General Assembly to accuse the nation of bossing the world around and for causing the conflict in Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke before the 193-nation assembly, complaining that the United States is trying to dictate to the world “what is good and evil.”

“The U.S.-led Western alliance that portrays itself as a champion of democracy, rule of law and human rights within individual countries… (is) rejecting the democratic principle of sovereign equality of states enshrined in the U.N. Charter and trying to decide for everyone what is good or evil,” he said.

“Washington has openly declared its right to unilateral use of force anywhere to uphold its own interests,” Lavrov added. “Military interference has become a norm – even despite the dismal outcome of all power operations that the U.S. has carried out over the recent years.”

The speech was the latest evidence of a rift between Moscow and the Western powers. The United States led a number of nations that imposed strict economic sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. Though reports have indicated that Russian troops have since pulled back from eastern Ukraine, tensions remain high between Russia and the rest of the world.

This week a former adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed that for the past decade the Russian leader has been plotting a world war. Andrey Illarionov said Putin has been planning for a major war since at least 2003, and for proof of the plan pointed to a 2008 article from Russian Journal that outlined a plan for Russia to attack Crimea and move eastward to capture the rest of the country.

“As we see, not only were they preparing, they were publishing it,” Illarionov said.

But Russian officials are deflecting blame for the war in Ukraine. In his remarks before the U.N. General Assembly, Sergei Lavrov said that the United States and European Union “supported the coup d’etat in Ukraine” and were, therefore, responsible for the conflict there.