On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov condemned the intervention of Western nations in Libya, and creating the migration crisis.
These remarks came in a joint meeting of the Councils of Defense and Foreign Ministers, during which Lavrov added that the topic of illegal migration emerged after NATO intervened in Libya.
“Flows of illegal migrants then headed northward through the bombed-out Libya, and when the European Union realised that this burden was too heavy for it, it began to urge everyone else to share the burden of responsibility for the fate of these migrants,” the Russian Minister stressed. “We are not going to share the burden of responsibility for what we not only had refused to support, but also condemned,” the FM pointed out.
He also said that the actions from the West had made Libya “a black hole from a country that used to be among the most stable and flourishing.”
“That is why, the West must understand that if it keeps supporting reckless schemes like the Iraqi and Libyan ones, if it continues actions that have brought about nothing good and have in no way calmed the situation after NATO’s 20 years in Afghanistan, then probably people will be fleeing the places that the West wanted to make happy through their democratic mission,” he concluded.
On Wednesday, Russia blocked the Security Council over the one-year renewal of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL)
Moscow, which has veto-wielding power, did not approve the language in a resolution drafted by the UK on the withdrawal of foreign troops and mercenaries from Libya. It also rejected the new role of the UN envoy to Libya.
“The mandate for the UN mission expires late Wednesday, and the Security Council planned to vote in the morning on a simple technical rollover until the end of the month in order to resolve issues by then,” the sources added.
During the last Security Council debate on Libya, Russia insisted that any withdrawal of foreign troops should be handled, so as not to jeopardize the balance of power in the country.
During a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Moscow, Russian President, Vladimir Putin said that the Second Berlin Conference resulted in agreements that would contribute to improving the situation in Libya.