Sergei Lavrov Rejects 'Myth Of A Russian Threat' In Europe

Moscow's top diplomat Sergei Lavrov on Thursday denounced the "myth of a Russian threat" and accused Western powers of destabilising Europe, at a meeting in Germany of OSCE nations.

He urged all sides to take "a map of the continent and together look at what's where and what belongs to whom", referring to NATO's enlargement in eastern Europe since the Cold War, which Moscow regards as a threat to its security.

"We are sure such a review will convincingly dismantle the myth of a Russian threat and demonstrate where the real risks are coming from," Lavrov told Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe nation foreign ministers at an annual meeting in the northern city of Hamburg.

"The euphoria the West was in after the end of the Cold War didn't lead to an architecture of security for all in the Euro-Atlantic space," he said, adding that instead "the choice was made for a closed NATO-centred system".

Lavrov also said the Western military interventions in Iraq and Libya had destabilised the region and sparked a surge in refugee, to the point of threatening European security.

"An honest conversation must be held about the causes of the migrant crisis in Europe that are the result of gross interference in the internal affairs of countries in the Middle East and North Africa leading to chaos, terrorism," he said.

On the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Lavrov charged that Kiev had sabotaged peace efforts by refusing a direct dialogue with the pro-Moscow rebels. 

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin at the same meeting decried "Russian aggression" and reiterated his government's call for the deployment of an OSCE armed police mission in eastern Ukraine and along the Russian-Ukrainian border. 

"The stakes are bigger and the price is higher than ever, the death toll from the war of Russia against Ukraine has already risen to 10,000," he said.

Germany, which chaired the meeting of the group created during the Cold War to promote East-West dialogue, noted the dramatic deterioration of relations within the group.

"The pillars of the OSCE are crumbling, the tone is getting harsher between East and West," said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, calling however for "common answers to the new global challenges of terrorism, extremism and cyber attacks".

"Most of all... we need to rebuild trust where it has been lost," he said.