The expresions come as Trump is due to meet Vladimir Putin for a bilateral summit aimed at improving relations between the US and Russia.

Asked about Russia’s continued support for the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Mr Lavrov said the state is being realistic and responsible about world security”.

He added it means dealing with “those who would help create conditions to make our people safer”.

The minister added: “When you compare the people’s suffering during their rule and now, following the US humanitarian intervention, then the numbers of those who were killed, wounded or forced out of their homes now, would be hundreds of thousands more than those who had suffered.”

He also said Russia does not “justify dictators” but wants every nation to first take every step to ensure that “your actions are not reckless”.

Mr Lavrov continued: “We have to see the big picture and have to think about the price of being moral just for the sake of being moral.”

Attacking the West for their previous military interventions, he also said those who “ruined Iraq and Libya, now want to put Syria in the same state”.

The Russian official accused the West of having double standards and try to shape the world as they see fit.

Mr Lavrov said: “The West tries to invent rules of each and every individual case and then claims that it is unique.

He went on to say that “for any other issue that they might not like there will be other rules”.

He pointed out that there was a referendum in 2014 in which an absolute majority voted to rejoin Russia.

There was also a referendum in 1992, but it was overturned by the Ukrainian government.

Mr Lavrov said the 2014 referendum was done “in a more transparent and legitimate way than the unilateral recognition of Kosovo’s independence without any referendum”.

Nato is also an atavism of Cold War times, Mr Lavrov said.

He added the reunification of the Crimea with Russia is just the “inertia of Cold War thinking”.

The minister continued: “We do not believe what NATO is doing by trying to expand further and further closer to the Russian borders by swallowing countries that do not add anything to the security of the alliance.

“We do not believe that this is the way to resolve the problems of today.”

The minister also said Nato spends 12 times more on defence than Russia.

Also, the alliance fails to “effectively address” such issues as terrorism, climate change, drug trafficking and organised crime.