Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused the West of using “colonial” tactics to force countries away from cheap Russian energy and toward expensive U.S. oil and LNG. Lavrov claimed Europe faces a deepening energy and food crisis as tensions around the Strait of Hormuz escalate after the U.S.-Israel confrontation with Iran. He also praised India for independently deciding its energy imports despite Western pressure. Lavrov warned that global energy routes, including Nord Stream and Hormuz, are becoming geopolitical battlegrounds as Russia, the U.S., Europe, Iran, and BRICS nations compete for influence amid growing fears of a wider global crisis. es