He said that the preservation of Ukraine as a "free sovereign and independent country with an integral territory" is a condition for preserving the order that was formed after the Second World War and which saves humanity from another such war.
"If the rules-based world order, which is now in its 80th year, flies into the tubes ... we will double our defense budgets because there will be an era not of competition, but of great power conflict, and this is incredibly dangerous for the whole world," he said at a congressional hearing. His words are quoted by RIA Novosti.
The Russian Foreign Ministry claims that Representatives of the West are promoting the neocolonial concept of a "rules-based order" to provide ideological and political cover for their aggressive steps.
In practice, the application of these "rules" undermines the fundamental principles of the UN Charter, Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasized.
According to Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, the Western idea of a "rules-based order" should be rejected as untenable and harmful to humanity.