Allegations about Russia’s aggressiveness are used by the West to brainwash voters, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday. Speaking after a ministerial meeting of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council, he cited as an example the West’s response to the Zapad-2017 Russian-Belarusian military exercises. Moscow was baffled, he said, after the exercises were branded as “offensive and non-transparent, although Russia invited foreign observers long before these exercises were held.” He also described as false stories that Russian troops will stay in Belarus after the exercises, TASS reports.