MOSCOW

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday that Europe has chosen a "path of war" in its relations with Russia, and if it is war, then Moscow must "achieve its goals."

Addressing servicemen of Russia's 201st military base in Tajikistan, Lavrov said the country’s updated foreign policy "reflects such an attitude" of Europe.

"We'll have to live with them (Europeans) side by side anyway. But if it is a war, then we must achieve our goals. And our goals are much nobler compared to Europeans. They want someone else's, and we want our own," he said.

A video of the speech of the top diplomat released by the Foreign Ministry, in which he noted that the Russian authorities perceive "provocations coming from abroad" and do everything to show "an example of how to fight against injustice.”

In a separate event in the capital Dushanbe, Lavrov said in his speech to students at Russian-Tajik Slavic University that there are "purposeful efforts" by the West to "penetrate" into Central Asia.

The minister warned that "development assistance" programs promoted by the West in the region are "nothing more but tools for controlling and reformatting the political and economic landscape of the region for itself."

"We urge our friends to take critically the schemes of military cooperation imposed by Westerners and training programs for law enforcement officers," he said.

Lavrov argued that "after years of lies and deceptions," Moscow "had no choice but to launch a special military operation aimed at eliminating threats to the country’s national security, protecting Russians and Russian-speaking population from extermination, from ethnic and linguistic cleansing."​​​​​​​

He claimed that Russia "was forced to respond to the war" unleashed by the Ukrainian authorities in 2014.

During his visit to Dushanbe, Lavrov also met with Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon, and Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin, and attended the opening ceremony of an exhibition of Russian Orthodox and classical writers.