The American reaction to the recent Russian-led peacekeeping operation in Kazakhstan is a sign that the US thinks it alone has “special status” to maintain law and order around the world, Moscow’s top diplomat has said following talks in Geneva.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke at a press conference on Friday, immediately after a meeting with his American counterpart, Antony Blinken. The diplomat said that the two had discussed a number of recent political developments, and that he had demanded an explanation for comments Blinken made about the presence of Russian peacekeeping forces in Kazakhstan under the auspices of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), of which Russia and Kazakhstan are members.

“As for ‘spheres of influence,’ I asked Antony Blinken to explain,” Lavrov told journalists. “After the president of Kazakhstan asked for help from the CSTO in suppressing the terrorists, based on the CSTO chapter for assistance, there were demands that Kazakhstan should explain why it did what it did. This illustrates that the West is confident of its own special status. They are allowed to do everything, and others are not allowed to do anything. Look at how the EU is behaving.”