MOSCOW, February 4 – RIA Novosti. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Washington should not hope that the memory of staging the “Powell test tube” at the UN Security Council will sink into the swamps of history, that the United States will have to get rid of the permissiveness syndrome. Commenting on the 20th anniversary of the UN Security Council meeting, where the US tried to justify its intention to invade Iraq, he told RIA Novosti.

On February 5, 2003, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said at the UN Security Council meeting that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had learned about biological weapons production technologies and showed him a test tube with white powder. . Many concluded that this was an example of weapons of mass destruction produced in Iraq. The operation, which started on March 20, 2003, was carried out without UN permission. It later emerged that the CIA had misinformed the authorities, explaining that there were no biological weapons in Iraq, and that the Secretary of State had shown a fake test tube to persuade.

“The image of Colin Powell showing a test tube containing a powder resembling anthrax has long become a buzzword as the personification of the hypocrisy and belief of the US ruling elite in their own immunity, their unquestioned right to rant. “He deliberately uses force against a weak opponent to protect him.”

The Deputy Minister noted that the realization of this shameful picture by the then Foreign Minister, who was the head and shoulders of those who “directed” the US foreign policy after him, did not change the essence of the issue. “As a decent person, Colin Powell did not hide in the future that he had to lie while carrying out the order,” Ryabkov added.

“We even admit that the American political class, especially the leaders of the modern generation, has a guilty conscience, which is not inherent in principle. In the rapidly changing geopolitical realities, the United States can now objectively use force at any time, without serious consequences for itself,” said Ryabkov.

According to him, “The shameful escape from Afghanistan set the limits of America’s military capabilities, but did not discourage it.”

“The proof of this is America’s intervention in Ukraine as one side of the conflict, if you take into account old habits and habits, aggressive and unbridled rhetoric, and Russia and China, other major international players shaping a more just multilateral world order. It should not be hoped that the memory of what happened before will be buried in the swamps of modern history,” he said.