Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov commented on the statement by Deputy Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland on 18 scenarios developed by Washington in the event of Russia's "aggression" against Ukraine.

According to the Russian minister, this may indicate the existence of an "interagency competition" in the United States.

Nuland's statement was previously published by the Financial Times.

Nuland mentions in the material that she does not intend to disclose the details of the 18 scripts prepared in the United States.

At the same time, she pointed out that the interaction of the United States with the allies is aimed at inflicting "acute pain" on Russia in the event of "aggression" on its part.

“It seems that the United States, as reported, has 17 special services and intelligence services.

Maybe 17 plus the State Department - 18 scenarios.

They may be announcing a competition within themselves,” Lavrov said with irony during a press conference following negotiations with the Croatian Foreign Minister.

Shortly before this, the press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov commented on the statement about “18 scenarios of actions against Russia”.

According to him, in the current situation, Russia is thinking about ensuring its own security.

“We know from Ms. Nuland that the US has 18 scenarios.

We are also considering different scenarios, we believe that in fact there should be much fewer of them, because the formulation of the question is extremely correct, ”Peskov said.

He expressed the hope that "American interlocutors" will be able to respond in writing to Russia's proposals on security guarantees this week.

Speaking about the recent requests of the Baltic states to host an additional contingent of NATO troops, Peskov noted that this was proof of the validity of the concerns expressed by the Russian side.

“This is proof that we are not the cause of the escalation of tension,” the press secretary of the Russian president emphasized.

It should be noted that in 2021, one of the main topics in the Western media, in connection with which Russia was mentioned, was the “increased concentration” of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine.

Subsequently, statements were made that Russia was allegedly preparing to “attack” Ukraine.

Moscow has repeatedly denied the existence of such plans.

Nevertheless, representatives of Western states declared their readiness to introduce new anti-Russian sanctions in the event of "military aggression" against Ukraine.

One of the latest statements of this kind was the statement by the official representative of the White House, Jen Psaki, about the allegedly impending "invasion" of Russia into Ukraine, which, according to her, could take place in mid-January-February.

Psaki believes that "Russia can fabricate an excuse for an attack."

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Lavrov also paid attention to Psaki's speech in an interview with reporters.

The minister said that US officials were spreading misinformation, in particular, alleging an alleged attack on the Russian-speaking population of Donbass in order to "get a pretext for that very invasion."

At the same time, Lavrov noted that Psaki drew parallels in this case with the events of 2014 in Ukraine.

As Lavrov emphasized, the tragedy of modern Ukraine "really began in 2014", but was not the result of some kind of provocation on the part of Russia, but the result of a "coup d'etat supported and even organized to a large extent" by the United States.

“And today, of course, Ukraine is under the external control of the United States.

Washington is quite capable of simply forcing the Kiev regime to finally comply with the Minsk agreements,” Lavrov said.

The Russian Embassy in Washington also reacted to the statements of the White House representative.

Russian diplomats called Psaki's assumptions information stuffing.

As noted in the statement of the diplomatic mission, “representatives of the administration are already describing in detail scenarios for such provocations, naming the dates for the eventual start of “operations”.

“Such a statement of the question confirms the ongoing information pressure on our country.

Moreover, the same scenario is repeated: there is a “stuffing” of a sensation, which then, repeated many times by the press, turns into the main newsbreak, ”the diplomatic department added.

The embassy also stressed that Russia stands for a diplomatic solution to all problems.