US Views Russia as Present-Day Threat, Trump May Prioritize Containing China: Lavrov

"The task of containing China was set by the administration of Joe Biden. I assume it will remain a priority for the administration of Donald Trump, too. And we are the 'threat' of today. Washington cannot allow Russia to prove that it is a powerful player or undermine the West’s reputation," Lavrov told TV presenter Marina Kim in an interview for the New World program, TASS reported.

Russia’s top diplomat stressed that reputation matters the most to the United States which does not care about the real fates of peoples, in particular the Ukrainian one.

"They don’t care about Ukraine. They care about their reputation: they once said that Ukraine would have this government, but suddenly someone dared to object. Russia? A large country, indeed, but it needs to be put in its place. This is what it’s all about, it’s not about the fate of the Ukrainian people at all. They don’t care about the people," the Russian top diplomat said.