“Regime change in Ukraine is unattainable for Russia”

Berlin The Kremlin is aiming to overthrow the government in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a visit to Cairo at the weekend. Neither the top diplomat nor the ruler Vladimir Putin had previously communicated their plans for the neighboring country so directly.

Lavrov spoke in Cairo of wanting to help the Ukrainian people “free themselves from the regime that is absolutely hostile to the people and history”. “But a regime change is unattainable for Russia,” says political scientist Gerhard Mangott in a telephone conversation with the Tagesspiegel.

The professor of international relations at the university has specialized in Eastern Europe and Russia. In “Russia lacks the military strength to do so. That’s not within the country’s capabilities, and the West knows it too.”