Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a press conference following talks with Namibia's Minister of International Relations and Trade Selma Ashipala-Musavyi in Moscow, Russia, January 14, 2026. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov/Pool
MOSCOW, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that the United States was fragmenting the very international system which Washington helped to create by undertaking what he said was an illegal operation to topple Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and by threatening Iran with attack.
"We are talking about a gross violation of international law," Lavrov said of the U.S. operation to capture Maduro. He added that Russia remained committed to its agreements with Venezuela, a Russian ally.
"In general, this and other actions in the international arena indicate the line of our American colleagues to break the entire system that has been created for many years with their participation," he said.
Lavrov, who has served as foreign minister since 2004, said the entire international order - along with globalisation - had been "flushed down the drain" and was now fragmenting.
When asked about U.S. threats against Iran, Lavrov said that Moscow needed to keep working with Tehran to implement their bilateral agreements and that no other country could change the nature of ties between Russia and Iran.
Lavrov suggested that the United States, by abandoning the principles it had promoted for so long, was damaging its own image.
"Our American colleagues look unreliable when they act in this way," Lavrov told a news conference with his Namibian counterpart in Moscow.
Asked about a Bloomberg report that White House envoy Steve Witkoff and U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner are seeking to travel to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, Lavrov said that Putin had repeatedly said that he is open to serious discussions about peace in Ukraine.
It would, Lavrov said, be helpful if Washington briefed Moscow on the latest peace proposals for Ukraine.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge/ Anastasia Teterevleva; editing by Andrew Osborn )
