Highlights From Lavrov's Interview

Highlights From Lavrov's Interview That A Leading Italian Newspaper Refused To Publish

Andrew Korybko

Leading Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera scandalously refused to publish in full the exclusive written interview with Sergey Lavrov that the Russian Foreign Ministry offered them in order to clarify Russia’s positions and with which they were eager to cooperate until they received the answers from him. 

The Russian Foreign Ministry then condemned their decision as “a blatant case of censorship.”What follows are highlights from his interview so that readers can make up their own minds about it.

Lavrov began by relating how Trump agreed with Putin in Anchorage that Ukraine should be kept out of NATO and that the new ground reality should be recognized

Ukraine, the EU, and the UK immediately tried to manipulate him right after during their White House meeting. The Financial Times then played a complementary role after the next Trump-Putin call in October by speculating that Lavrov’s follow-up call with Rubio ruined their Budapest Summit plans. Putin is still ready to meet with Trump there though.

The next point that Lavrov made was that the special operation isn’t about territory but saving the Russian minority’s lives and ensuring his country’s security. 

The restraint that Russia has exercised thus far is to spare civilian and military lives. He also reaffirmed Russia’s goals in the special operation and defended wearing a sweatshirt with USSR written on the front during the Anchorage Summit, which he said doesn’t imply a desire to recreate the Soviet Union and was just a display of patriotism.

Moving along, Lavrov said that the Europeans want to indefinitely perpetuate the Ukrainian Conflict because “they have no other way of distracting their voters from sharply deteriorating domestic socioeconomic problems…they are openly preparing Europe for a new big war against Russia and are trying to talk Washington into rejecting an honest and fair settlement.”

More...