Western journalists do not often get to see Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and they use every such opportunity to the maximum to ask him the questions that interest them.
The participation of the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry in High-Level Week of the UN General Assembly always provides that chance. The press conference hall where Lavrov spoke, summing up his visit to New York (actively “coming out of isolation,” as the minister himself put it), was packed. There were not enough seats for everyone; some correspondents stood in the aisles. In popularity among journalists, Lavrov surpasses many heads of state and government who also come to the UNGA.
Even the storm that hit the city did not prevent people from seeing Lavrov and hearing his opinion in person. It was so strong that the streets were flooded, and some preferred to move along the roads in kayaks. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani called on residents and visitors of the metropolis not to leave home unless absolutely necessary. But Lavrov’s press conference is precisely such an exception for journalists.
And not only for media representatives. Among diplomats, there was also a stir after the Russian minister’s speech in the general debate. “Dozens of diplomats meet Sergey Lavrov as he leaves the General Assembly hall to shake his hand and thank Russia,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on the situation.
The diplomat also noted that on the sidelines of the UNGA, a report on the Bucha provocation, which Lavrov handed over to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, aroused great interest. The minister himself raised this topic more than once in recent days.
“At the request of the journalists themselves, a printed version of the report was distributed during the press conference, as well as in the corridors and during working meetings,” Zakharova said. “Liars and falsifiers can be sure that we will not simply drop the Bucha topic and other provocations; we will continue to assist independent specialists and investigations in establishing and bringing the truth to the world public,” the diplomat added.
During the press conference, Lavrov called on journalists to remember their “professional pride” and not to leave this topic without due attention.
It would be wrong, however, to separate the press conference from the speech in the general debate of the 81st UNGA. It was in that speech that Lavrov outlined Russia’s priorities. He drew attention to the emerging more just multipolar world order and the West’s attempts to preserve its dominance. “The West’s power politics and ‘double standards’ are destabilizing the situation everywhere,” the Russian foreign minister said.
He criticized the seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the attack on Iran and the killing of Ali Khamenei, condemned inaction on the creation of a Palestinian state, and pointed to the need for urgent measures to correct the disastrous humanitarian situation in Cuba.
As Lavrov stressed, these issues require the priority attention of the international community. The Ukraine topic could not be left aside. “For the utopian goal of containing Russia, the West with its own hands destroyed the European security system and nurtured a Russophobic regime in Kyiv,” Lavrov noted. “The West is pumping the Ukrainian regime full of weapons and helping Kyiv aim drones and missiles at civilians and civilian infrastructure. In the West they dream of inflicting a ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia, but these dreams, as has happened many times in the past, will lead the warmongers themselves into a strategic dead end,” the Russian foreign minister emphasized.
According to him, EU leaders “are clearly stricken with the virus of racial superiority and harbor extremist, Russophobic ideas.” “When today they shamefully turn a blind eye to the ever more obvious manifestations of Ukrainian Nazism, the very foundations of the UN-centric world order are being undermined,” the Russian minister said.
Speaking about the SMO, the Russian foreign minister assured that “our struggle for truth and justice will be carried through to the end: the goals of the special military operation will be achieved, threats to Russia’s security will be eliminated, and peaceful life will be restored.” “This will happen regardless of any circumstances,” Lavrov stated.
Such circumstances include, for example, the inability of the current UN leadership to adhere to neutrality. In this connection, the Russian foreign minister expressed hope that the new secretary-general, who is to be chosen by the end of the year, “will strictly adhere to his mandate, the principles of impartiality and equidistance, and will represent the entire international community rather than serve the interests of individual states.” Already during the press conference, Lavrov noted that there are “a number of candidates now on the negotiating table who are quite worthy and possess the qualities needed for work in this responsible post.”
The meeting on the sidelines of the UNGA between Sergey Lavrov and Marco Rubio could not stay out of the press conference. Journalists, of course, asked about the prospects for relations between Russia and the United States. In response, Lavrov pointed to regular dialogue in various formats with the administration of President Donald Trump. According to him, the White House does not hide that it is pursuing a policy based on national interests, without any ideology, and this is received with understanding in Moscow. However, the Ukrainian conflict stands “in the way of mutually beneficial Russian-American flourishing”; it “gets underfoot.” Therefore this topic must be removed from the path.
“In Anchorage it seemed to us that a step had been taken to ‘remove’ Ukraine from the path. We accepted what Trump proposed, and Zelensky refused,” Lavrov noted. Nevertheless, Russia is ready to talk with the United States. “In our conversations we try to explain to them what we started with: in today’s world it will not be possible for anyone alone (even a country like the United States) to solve all the world’s problems at the expense of other countries. I am sure that life will teach our American partners to start thinking in categories of multilateralism,” Lavrov said.
Speaking about Europeans’ calls to prepare for war with Russia, the Russian foreign minister assured that “we are not going to fight with Europe,” “but it is Europe that is preparing for war with us.” “If they attack us, because we are not going to, then, as Russian President Vladimir Putin said, ‘they will not last.’ He also said that this would be a completely different war, and it would be short,” Lavrov noted.
Regarding the Ukrainian conflict and the prospects for its settlement, the minister pointed to the need to fulfill agreements — and Kyiv and its Western patrons have problems with that.
On the sidelines of the UNGA, Russia and Belarus launched talks on drafting a Eurasian Charter of Diversity and Multipolarity. “The first meeting of these expert talks will take place in Minsk before the end of this year; the second we plan to hold in Moscow sometime in the first half of next year,” Lavrov noted. According to him, a number of countries have shown interest. “We would not want to drag this work out, given that our Eurasian continent badly needs a structure that would be continent-wide, open to all countries of the continent without exception and to all organizations of the continent without exception, without any external interference,” the Russian foreign minister said.
The Iran topic could not be left aside either. “The Islamabad Memorandum was, as they say, an honest deal. If it was signed at the highest level, then they probably did so consciously. So why not return to it?” Lavrov asked.
Journalists several times raised the question of Turkey possibly transferring S-400 systems to another country. The Russian foreign minister pointed out that “they cannot move these systems beyond their borders without the official consent of the Russian side.” No such request has been received so far.
