Update: This transcript is now complete.
Ed Note: This transcript is not complete and we will issue an update when it is completed. We post it now because of the renewed DDoS attacks on Russian infrastructure.
In addition, Mr Lavrov had two more quite serious interviews. They are available here:
- Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with the NTV network, St Petersburg, June 16, 2022
- Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with TASS news agency, St Petersburg, June 16, 2022
https://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/1818228/
Question: Did President Putin, before taking the decision and announcing the start of what he calls a special military operation, consult you on whether he should?
Sergey Lavrov: Every country has a decision-making mechanism. In that case, the mechanism existing in the Russian Federation was fully employed.
Question: Did he consult you?
Sergey Lavrov: Again, there are things we do not speak about publicly. There is a mechanism for taking decisions. It was followed in full.
Question: I am asking because you have been foreign minister for 18 years, and invading a sovereign neighbouring state is a foreign matter. The President surely assumed that there would be international repercussions. I thought he would consult you.
Sergey Lavrov: You are an experienced journalists well-aware of the realities in Russia, around Russia, and in the post-Soviet space. Your question seeks to cancel everything prior to February 24 of this year. For eight years, we had been promoting the necessity of implementing the Minsk agreements, unanimously endorsed by the UN Security Council, with the help of our intelligence agencies, Foreign Ministry, and Defence Ministry.
Throughout those eight years, we were insisting that Donetsk and Lugansk (which initially, as you may remember, in 2014, declared their independence in response to the neo-Nazi coup d’etat in Kiev) should sign the Minsk agreements, which guaranteed Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. When nowadays Chancellor Olaf Scholz claims that Russia must be forced to reach agreements with Ukraine, agreements that would respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Ukrainian state, I have a feeling that he is not of this world but someone from “outer space.” Because all those eight years we were trying to ensure the implementation of agreements which guaranteed the territorial integrity of the Ukrainian state.
Question: But the situation changed four months ago …
Sergey Lavrov: The situation has not changed. We are going back to what the Minsk agreements were coordinated for: protecting Russians in Donbass, who have been betrayed by the French and Germans. The British also played a leading role. All our Western colleagues kept saying they were unable to make Kiev honour the Minsk agreements.
Question: If the goal is to protect Russians in Donbass, why have more civilians been killed in the DPR and LPR in the four months since the start of the special military operation than in all of last year?
Sergey Lavrov: Did you also watch German ARD television and the main French TV channel, which declared recently that a maternity clinic and a marketplace had been shelled by the Russian army killing dozens of civilians? They declared without any qualms that this had been done by the Russian military. Just like they claimed some time ago that a railway station in Kramatorsk had been hit by Russia. Although the Western journalists proved that the missile had come from the territory controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Question: Last year, eight civilians were killed in the LPR and DPR, and seven the year before. While every death is a tragedy, that did not constitute the genocide Russian officials often invoke. With these numbers in mind, can you say that invading Ukraine was a reasonable decision?
Sergey Lavrov: We did not invade Ukraine. We announced a special military operation after being left with no other means to make it clear to the West that it is engaging in criminal activity by dragging Ukraine into NATO, by coddling and doting on a neo-Nazi regime, whose president Vladimir Zelensky said in September 2021 (you didn’t tell your viewers about it, did you?) that, if someone in Ukraine feels Russian, they should leave for Russia. He said that publicly. When a CNN correspondent told him that the Azov Regiment was listed as an extremist and terrorist organisations by some Western countries, the US, and Japan, Vladimir Zelensky shrugged his shoulders and said they had many such battalions and regiments, and they were what they were.
Question: Let’s look at the consequences. Four months have passed. The result: thousands of civilians have been killed; over 14 million Ukrainians have fled their homes; Russian troops sustained considerable losses and a host of sanctions have been imposed on Russia. Do you still call it the right decision?
Sergey Lavrov: I will tell you again: we didn’t have any other choice. We have explained this many times, a thousand times. Today, the Ukrainian regime is attacking civilians with your Western weapons just like they did in 2014 when the putschists came to power, when the centre of Lugansk was bombed by aircraft and 50 people were burned alive in Odessa. Does anyone recall this now?
Question: If you didn’t attack, there wouldn’t have been any weapons from the West.
Sergey Lavrov: We didn’t attack anyone. Russians were attacked in Ukraine. Imagine you are English. English or Scottish?
Question: I mentioned the figures to you. Eight dead in the past year, seven…
Sergey Lavrov: I am telling you that the Ukrainian regime is bombing its own population and you are selling weapons to it so it can continue doing this. Now about genocide. Are you English? What if Ireland (not Northern Ireland but the Republic of Ireland) banned the English language? How would the English feel?
Question: They wouldn’t invade Ireland for certain.
Sergey Lavrov: Wouldn’t you feel humiliated? The Russian language is banned in Ukraine. Try to speak Russian in a street in Kiev when young people with a certain look are walking there.
Question:Why do you consider NATO a threat? Why do people in Russia often talk about five waves of NATO’s expansion?
Sergey Lavrov: I think that NATO is a threat because we have been close friends with Serbians for a long time. They told us what the North Atlantic Alliance is about. The Afghans with whom we maintain relations in Afghanistan (and that includes practically all ethnic groups) also told us about the alliance and how it bombed wedding ceremonies. Just because these pilots wondered why some people had got together. They must be bombed, just in case.
I will explain to you why NATO is a threat. Talk to citizens of Iraq and Libya. Their countries were razed to the ground. After this, NATO still claims to be a defensive alliance. We are told not to worry, that Ukraine’s accession to NATO wouldn’t pose a threat to the Russian Federation. This is what we were told. With all due respect for our colleagues from the North Atlantic Alliance, I must say that Russia has the right to decide for itself what threatens its security and what does not.
Question: There were no NATO troops in Eastern Europe before the annexation of Crimea in 2014…
Sergey Lavrov: Moreover, there was no annexation of Crimea, either.
Question: As a result of Crimea’s annexation, there appeared 4,500 troops in 2016, and 40,000 after February 24, 2022. This is the result of Russia’s actions.
Sergey Lavrov: You are a clever man. These are facts. I will cite different facts for you. Your entire analysis is based on “cancel culture.” You are changing everything that preceded the event that you call an invasion or annexation. What happened in Ukraine on February 21, 2014? What we call a coup d’etat. How do you call it?
Question: I was the first to ask you. How do you call it?
Sergey Lavrov: I’ve already said that this was a coup d’etat that took place the morning after France, Poland and Germany affixed their signatures under the agreement between the then president and the opposition leaders. In the morning, the opposition leaders spat in the faces of Germany, France and Poland which swallowed it. We called this a coup d’etat. And how did you call it?
Question: Do events of eight years ago give you the right to do what you are doing?
Sergey Lavrov: This is not about the right. I want to hear your honest response. We called it a coup d’etat. How do you call it in Britain?
Question: I wanted to ask you about this.
Sergey Lavrov: I want to understand your logic because if you want me to give you clear answers you must clearly explain to me what you are talking about.
Question: I want to grasp your logic. You say that NATO is a threat. Now you are saying that there is too much NATO on Russian borders. And yet now “there is even more NATO” as a result of Russia’s actions. Finland and Sweden are joining the alliance.
Sergey Lavrov: Finland and Sweden have long been subordinate to the Anglo-Saxons as the EU and NATO have drawn closer together. The EU has lost its meaning.
Question: Is the fact that Finland and Sweden are becoming NATO members a failure of Russian diplomacy?
Sergey Lavrov: Sweden and Finland are exercising their sovereign right and they are acting according to their governments’ decisions. They also are not overly concerned with public opinion, just as they didn’t concern themselves with public opinion in different countries as they carried out the objectives set by NATO.
Question: Does that mean it is not a threat to Russia?
Sergey Lavrov: We shall see how it will end. When and if Sweden and Finland join NATO, we will see what will go into effect on the ground. Whether weapons are delivered there and new contingents deployed. That said, I assure you that nobody is going to listen to either Europeans, or Finland or Sweden. They are telling us now that they will have no foreign troops or military bases. Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that the US intends to increase its military presence in Europe, they have not yet decided if it will be permanent, rotational or permanent-rotational. He never said the EU should be consulted. He does not want to hear from European allies. He just decided, and announced that decisions will be made in Washington.
Question: Russia says that Ukraine is fighting Nazis.
Sergey Lavrov: Ukraine is not fighting Nazis. Nazism is flourishing in Ukraine.
Question: Listen to what the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights says. She spoke in May following a monitoring mission and said that the Russian military kept 360 people including 74 children and 5 disabled persons for 28 days in a school basement in the village of Yagodnoye, Chernigov Region, without a toilet and water. Ten elderly people died. Is this fighting Nazism?
Sergey Lavrov: International bureaucrats, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and, to my immense disappointment, the UN Secretary-General and many other UN representatives, are being put under pressure by the West and are often being used to amplify fake news spread by the West.
Question: So Russia is squeaky clean, isn’t it?
Sergey Lavrov: Russia is not squeaky clean. Russia is what it is. And we are not ashamed of showing who we are.
May I inquire with you to better understand your media outlet’s policy on the Bucha tragedy? Did you report on the frame-up job in Bucha? You definitely said it had been carried out by Russia, right? The Guardian newspaper published in London later got preliminary forensic results which showed that most people whose dead bodies were shown by all the world’s TV channels got their wounds from artillery shrapnel.
Question: Why do you ask? We have little time.
Sergey Lavrov: We have little time but you do not want to tell me why you keep saying untruths, to put it mildly. I asked you a question about how the BBC had covered the events in Bucha.
Question: I wasn’t in Bucha. I am in Russia and this is why I am asking you about Russia’s position. The purpose of the operation as it was stated by President Putin back then is regime change, isn’t it?
Sergey Lavrov: The purpose of the operation is to protect the rights of Russians which have been blatantly ignored not only by the Kiev regime but also by the entire West and the civilised community which refused to implement the Minsk Agreements.
If you did not want to secure the rights of the Russians in Donbass through Kiev’s adherence to a UNSC resolution, we will ensure the rights of Russians ourselves. That is what we are doing.Question: On February 25 of this year, Vladimir Putin addressed Ukrainian soldiers and urged them to take power in their hands because it would be easier for Russia to come to terms with them than with this gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis in Kiev. This sounds like a direct call for a military rebellion.
Sergey Lavrov: No, it sounds like a direct call for fulfilling their military duty instead of serving Nazis who are cancelling everything that their regime doesn’t like, including Russian education, culture and media. They didn’t cancel BBC because you haven’t told the truth about what was happening there for eight years. I asked you a question: Did you or any of your BBC colleagues go to Donbass during the eight years when Kiev soldiers were bombing civilians there?
Question: Over the course of six years, the BBC had many times contacted the leadership in the separatist-run areas asking for permission to go and see what was happening. We were refused entry every single time. I think if genocide had really taken place there, they would have been interested in letting us come and see but no. Why were we denied entry?
Sergey Lavrov: I don’t know why you were denied entry. Our journalists worked there 24/7 and showed the results of bombing by Kiev battalions. You should have gone to the Ukrainian side of the contact line. They do not have such destruction there.
Question: Recently, your President praised Peter the Great for reclaiming primordial Russian territories and even added that “to return and strengthen is also our lot.” How many more territories and what territories are you going to reclaim?
Sergey Lavrov: President Vladimir Putin said it all. I have nothing to add. I will tell you again: you want to forget everything that preceded this event. You deny, cancel and do not want to hear what happened before February 24 of this year, what happened before the voting in Crimea. You cannot accept that we are very patient. But when our patience runs out, we respond to rudeness and the humiliation of the Russian people, like the coup in February 2014 when power was taken by people who cancelled the regional status of the Russian language and were going to oust Russians from Crimea (they sent armed people there). What did BBC report about this? Nothing at all. You said this was a normal democratic process.
Question: Can you say categorically that Russia won’t launch another special operation and won’t invade neighbouring territories?
Sergey Lavrov: We believed words for a very long time. Your comrades-in-arms, your compatriots together with other members of the North Atlantic Alliance solemnly proclaimed a principle of indivisible security where nobody has the right to enhance their security at the expense of the security of others. When we said that NATO’s five expansions undermines our security, we were simply ignored. Now President of France Emmanuel Macron said they must talk to Russia and should not humiliate the Russians. Do you know who replied to him? Some Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky. He said Macron didn’t understand anything, implying that Russians must be humiliated. What is your attitude to this?
Question: I want to ask you about the Brits who recently got a death sentence …
Sergey Lavrov: You should do an interview in the Donetsk People’s Republic about it.
Question: Russia is the only country that recognises the DPR.
Sergey Lavrov: No, it is not the only one, several more countries have recognised them.
Question: I think the DPR has a lot of influence in Russia.
Sergey Lavrov: We are friends and allies.
Question: In the eyes of the West, Russia is responsible for these people. Do you think the death sentence …
Sergey Lavrov: I am not interested in the “eyes of the West” at all. I am only interested in international law, according to which mercenaries are not combatants. So nothing in your eyes matters.
Question: They are not mercenaries, they were serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Sergey Lavrov: This should be determined by the court.
Question: Do you think the court there is independent?
Sergey Lavrov: I am confident they have independent courts there. Do you think your courts are independent? After Alexander Litvinenko’s death your “independent” court announced “public process,” that is, had the case classified. You did the same with the Skripals. That’s your law.
Question: Did the UK government contact you about the fate of these boys?
Sergey Lavrov: I have no information about their contacting us. They are used to doing everything publicly. They began saying they are worried about the fate of their subjects. I do not know if they contacted us or not. They should contact the DPR.
Question: How would you characterise relations with the UK now? Saying they are bad would be putting it mildly.
Sergey Lavrov: I think there is no room for manoeuvre left in the relationship. Boris Johnson and Elizabeth Truss say publicly that they must defeat Russia and bring it to its knees. Come on, do it!
Question: How does Moscow view Great Britain now?
Sergey Lavrov: This is a country which is once again sacrificing the interests of its people for the sake of politicians’ ambitions, who only think about the next election and nothing else.
Question: You criticise the countries, which are supplying weapons to Kiev. Who is more to blame – the countries supplying weapons to a country, which is defending its lands, or the country that has attacked it?
Sergey Lavrov: How is it defending its lands, when it bombs its own citizens? Let me remind you once again: Vladimir Zelensky said in September 2021 that those who think in Russian and feel they are Russian should beat it back to Russia. Why don’t you talk about that? Why do you ignore past events? Now, when they are shelling their own cities, towns, markets, maternity homes, and hospitals – everything is all right [with you]. You ask me why Russia is waging a “war” – in response to what we are showing. If they do not show in Britain the aftermath of the [Ukrainian] shelling of Donetsk, Kramatorsk and other places, you can certainly watch it here. Do you report anything on that?
Question: You said that you are defending Donbass and the people in Donbass. I told you that since the start of the operation twenty times more people had died …
Sergey Lavrov: And I told you that those people are being killed by neo-Nazis. I ask you: Do you show the results of the AFU’s shelling of towns and villages? Or you don’t show them in your reports? You don’t show it, correct? That is why you want to squeeze some words of regret from me about the current developments so as to send a report to London and use my words to back up the false version of events in Ukraine, which you keep broadcasting.
Question: You are wrong about that.
Sergey Lavrov: Being in Moscow, you cannot fail to see what journalists in Donbass are showing, what is happening as a result of [Ukrainian] artillery attacks on peaceful towns and civilians. Do you report on that or not?
Question: I want to ask you…
Sergey Lavrov: So that means you don’t.
Question: I have been in Russia for almost 30 years. I have toured the country. The phrase I heard most in the villages and cities I visited was “if only there is no war.” I understand that your country suffered terrible losses, that is why it beggars belief that your country has “unleashed a war” in Ukraine. I don’t understand why it was needed. To ruin Ukraine and the future of your own country?
Sergey Lavrov: I got your point. You have no problems with understanding the political course pursued by Kiev in the past ten years – to cancel anything Russian – do you? You think “if only there is no war” means a possibility to humiliate Russians and Russia (as the Czech foreign minister said replying to Emmanuel Macron who had spoken out against humiliating the Russians). For some reason, nobody is speaking about that. You grabbed what you needed for your line, for the narrative of your broadcasts.
The phrase “if only there is no war” is deeply ingrained in the Russian people. But it also has pride ingrained, what we call self-respect, which they are trying to take away from all the Russians in Ukraine, with your support.
Lavrov is not pulling any punches.
The disgust with the West and western journalists is very clear.
Looks like Russia will just go ahead with their plan for Ukraine and the plan for redefining the security structure of Europe regardless of what the West says or does.
And there seems to be little that the West can do about it, except perhaps to use nuclear weapons when they see that they cannot win.
Mr. Lavrov is a statesman with integrity. The west (USA, UN, & NATO) have lost all ability to truth, a reprobate political society doomed to destruction.
Nuclear weapons would do them no good and I think that down deep they know that. Remember what Putin said? “Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was ready to “annihilate” any attacker who would use nuclear weapons against it, but would never strike first.
“An aggressor should know that vengeance is inevitable, that he will be annihilated, and we would be the victims of the aggression. We will go to heaven as martyrs, and they will just drop dead. They will not even have time to repent for this,” he said.
wow.. show them up for what they are.. western fools with their government controlling russophobia.
I feel that Mr Lavrov has a lot more patience, self-esteem, morality and integrity to give such interviews to time wasting information agents of rhe west.
I do wonder why he wastes his energy and time to scum that is the BBC and western media. Nothing good can come about from giving such interviews in my humble opinion as it will never get aired unedited.
Maybe Mr Lavrov enjoys cornering the interviewer each time… might explain his reasons for accepting these interviews.
“Maybe Mr Lavrov enjoys cornering the interviewer each time… might explain his reasons for accepting these interviews.”
A resounding YES to this! I wish all of our so-called “Conservative” politicians in the West, would adopt Mr. Lavrov’s attitude toward the MSM press as the “Enemy of the People!”
His participation is helpful to show the world who is really evil.
No enjoying. You can see it in the responses he understands and despises the interviewer.
It is just work.
It is preferable to get one word out to the UK audience than no word. This interview was reported as “Russia does not care what the West thinks or desires” and that was the message he apparently wanted to convey. So in that sense, the interview objective was achieved – for Lavrov.
Well, it would appear that perhaps he has nerves of steel and he does….but it is actually quite simple because he always uses exact same logic and basis for his reasoning. And this is easy to do because they understand that the Western leaders use only a hypocritical line of thinking which is entirely predictable. Therefore, from the Russian point of view, their reasoning is always exactly the same. So, providing sound rational reasoning becomes a peace of cake.
The BBC with its typical Anglo centric arrogant assumption of moral superiority was put in its place. This is happening more and more frequently by both Russia, China and now even Mexico, Iran, Venezuela and even Saudi Arabia giving Biden the well deserved brush off. Western bullying is no longer working. Which leaves the West with only 2 choices. Humility. Or Nuclear War, since they know they’re no match for either Russia or China, much less an alliance of the two.
I presume this BBC interviewer was Steve Rosenberg who appears to have lived in Russia for quite some time and have ancestry in what is now Belarus in some shtetl
Did you get, that ((( Rosenberg))), with is first uttering has tried to implicate Lavrov`s personal responsibility to the decisions leading to the SMO?
True face of the enemy within…
Denazification…heh…
In my book Lavrov is the world’s best diplomat. The Satanistas sent their best hit man to fabricate bullshit from an interview with him and Lavrov effortlessly and politely batted him away.
I would like to know him. A good man. Admirable.
Incredible patience from Mr. Lavrov. Talking to this pre-programmed idiot from BBC, repeating again and agin Russia´s position.
By the way – the mentioned foreign minister of Czech Republic Jan Lipavsky is an obese kid without education or any experience. Ladies sweeping floors at the ministery would have been more qualified for the job.
Do not judge Czech people too harshly. Being protectorate of Germany, itself is an US colony, Czechs choose their government as much as the “chose” Heidrich in 1941.
Unfortunately many people in Czech Republic are completely brainwashed by western propaganda, there is huge censorship of alternative media and yes, the country is a collony of Germany and the West. The policy implemented in the country after “velvet revolution” in 1989 just sold out nearly everything that was possible in the country, even many national strategic property as watter supply assets for example. Electric energy produced there now is reselling back to Czechs through german stock market many times more expensive. What was also systematically destroyed since was any national self esteem ridiculing czech traditions and cultural heritage.
Actual totally incompetent government is the worst in the decade leading the country to war and economic catastrophe. It reflects the decline in the society with no sense for democratic values. There are still many ukrainian flags in the cities. So it seems only after huge number of people end up unable to pay their energy bills and food then hopefully most of them will wake up, but what an immensely high price the country will have to pay…
i live in the Czech republic and can confirm that. Moreover, most of the people can`t forgive Russia invasion of 68, but if you ask them about the 38, they are just silent, because there, they would need to criticize their beloved Germany and England. I am dissatisfied that i will have to endure the upcoming cold&hunger games with them, but there is not a lot one man can do.
There is, i believe growing number of “open-minded” people, but still, it`s not enough. Government is a tragedy, Ukraine shitflags are everywhere, even in the windows of common people.
The same in Slovakia, many brainwashed people, treacherous government… the only hope there is that the main opposition parties will be able to get the referendum going and remove the current government.
Mr. Lavrov was very patient talking to that arrogant journalist. BBC TV behaves like a proper Stalinist medium.
Agree with Ela, zivc and Kate. But let us face reality. Czechoslovakia (with Eastern Bloc) lost war (although cold), and as a losing country was robbed, humiliated, stripped of defense industry and army. All the BS about freedom and democracy way just a smoke, Anglosaxon humor (wchich I actually like a lot, but not in this specific case).
All institutions were slowly turned (supervised by US Embassy) into servile obedient spineless bureaucatic shells.
Hat off, great job, systematic, patient, efficient, finetuned by hundreds of years of practising (US learned from UK).
Even what is going on in Ukraine is a masterpiece. The Russians that I talk to admit that too. Russia very much did not want to start the fight with Ukraine, where not just Slavic people kill other Slavic people, but Russians kill Russians.
Too small, too weak, too ruined, Czechia and Slovakia need some patience – wait till EU colapses and US focuses on its own internal problems.
Enjoy the summer.
Its an embarressment to the former Prime Minister Benes of Czechoslovakia who was betrayed by France and England as German Tanks rolled into the Sudetenland in 1938. I will day that only the Czech government formally apologised to Serbia over the NATO bombing and their involvement. However , they turn around and start sending arms against Russia. Its sad to see that the Czechs and Slovaks have gone the opposite direction. Hungary has been one of the few countries which had shaken its former roles in World War 1 and 2.
Oh God, what an awful patience exercise. How can you speak to a deaf and show evidence to a blind? Which happens to be the same person. Lavrov is a diplomatic guru. I would punch that MotherEffer right in the face.
I want to see this in video please! any link? I want to see this interviewer face contortions… And the contained impatience of Mr. Lavrov!
Here it is (with English subtitles)
https://youtu.be/oRTUxPKJEEE
According to reports by some MoA commenters, that YouTube video is already being blocked by the BBC itself from viewing in the UK.
REF: https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/06/ukraine-the-wests-response-as-it-meets-with-reality.html?cid=6a00d8341c640e53ef02a30d3fd8e1200b#comment-6a00d8341c640e53ef02a30d3fd8e1200b
Do I have to go throw this again? This is impossible to finish! I hate them so much I can’t stand any question from the BBC. They are so stupid so they don’t even understand their own questions. Lavrov is so polite so he agree to be interviewed by them. I got crazy in my mind when I tried to read the questions and the answers. What happens in Faluja? The english stupid people and government did such an atrocity in Irak and got unpunished. To hell with BBC .
For every gotcha “question”, Mr. Lavrov turns the table on the BBC.
The man is an immensely skilled diplomat with the patience of a saint. Absolutely amazing that any of this interview is being shown on BBC at all.
Although on the impertinent side, it’s a great question to Lavrov about whether he was consulted for the SMO decision. His answer that all the procedures were followed, with a summary of what happened before February, is good since the question is on the impertinent side.
When the power is as great as Putin’s, not consulting for that goes with the territory. My guess is that they all knew at the same time when he called them for meetings to be televised to all. Others may differ but I think he gives the answer right here: “You are an experienced journalists well-aware of the realities in Russia, around Russia, and in the post-Soviet space” (then he goes into the unrelated summary of what happened before February 24).
“Sergey Lavrov: We did not invade Ukraine.”
Usually, political people just use another term without denying the term known to all.
The “was it worth it?” question of the journalist is bad. I don’t know – was it worth it to fight the Californios and gain California, or to be clearest, to resist Hitler in spite of the cost?
“Sergey Lavrov: I am telling you that the Ukrainian regime is bombing its own population”.
I believe it. A report in the NYT yesterday says many citizens in Lysychansk believe it too. The NYT said this is happening because of propaganda. The fact is they believe it from up close. The NYT also confirmed from Ukrainian sources in this city that some soldiers had stolen citizen cars and had the example of one whose garage was broken into, and soldiers took off with his car! It says most people speak Russian there and that many of the citizens want the Russians to arrive quickly.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/17/world/europe/ukraine-russia-propaganda.html
“Question: Why do you consider NATO a threat? Why do people in Russia often talk about five waves of NATO’s expansion?”
His answer is solid and the interviewer “switches gears.” Russia gave an answer to this question during the Geneva meetings this year: “We don’t trust you.”
Great interview, anyway, the best one!
It is erroneous to think that President Putin acts without consulting all of vast resources – political, military and economic – available, or that he would act without their support.
It is interesting to compare the governments of Russia and the US.
In Russia the president has real authority, in the US the president is a puppet, routinely countermanded by the Pentagon, congress, and the court.
Compare government officials – Foreign Minister Lavrov v. Secretary of State Blinken, Defense Minister Shoigu v. Secretary of Defense Austin, etc. On the Russian side are seasoned, experienced professionals. On the US side are military contractors and investors.
“It is erroneous to think that President Putin acts without consulting all of vast resources – political, military and economic – available, or that he would act without their support.”
He gets all the info., but the question was if he (Lavrov) had been consulted about whether to invade or not.
(“Did President Putin, before taking the decision and announcing the start of what he calls a special military operation, consult you on whether he should?”)
I think it’s erroneous to think that Putin would ask a question like that to them.
It was a gotcha question meant to frame Putin as an aucotractic despot.
Too bad you missed that.
On your comment method reply, I was interested in the direct meaning of the question and the answer. If because it was a “gotcha question”, the question does not count, the answer does not count, and only an inner perception of the gotcha question counts, I say we have a comment method problem. I only skim through a comment if it’s like that.
In a ‘live’ broadcast of the Russian Security Council, each member was asked to give his answer to Russia’s proposed intervention in Ukraine.
Such an question from a man, who says he’s been dealing with Russia for 30 years can be understood only as provocation! didn’t he read any Russian newspapers, watch their TV, it was all over them, how they all agreed, that they should act for months before the acting! It came from Lavrov, Shoygu and all the others, that, so it’s strange, that I that am living in Slovenia knew it, but he didn’t! And his “asking people” about how they feel about war is pathetic!
In the case with Biden, he doathes ewhat he is told to do. The big question is who is pulling the strings ? WEF needs to die a painful death.
From the NYT article,
“When you’re hit over the head with the same message, you just drown in it,” said Nina Khrushcheva, a professor of international affairs at the New School in New York, who teaches a course on the politics of propaganda. “After awhile, you don’t know what the truth is. The message takes over your reality.”
Oh, the irony of it! She seems to be describing the Western m.o. and its effects on its own population. How can a professor be so stupid as not to realize that she is “mirroring”?
Yes. “New School in New York”? They might have contacted her because of her name. Who needs to be taught such a thing?
It could be that Lavrov does not want to alert the western enemy to how well coordinated the Russian decision making machinery is. Let them think that it’s one man’s decision if that’s what they want to think and continue to underestimate their adversary.
Can someone explain to me why Russian government officials keep doing interviews at hostile Western news outfits while Western leaders would never sit down for one with Russian or Chinese news outlets. Whats the point ?
Perhaps the point it is so you, I, and many others, including, of course people in non-western countries, can see directly how western ‘journalists’ lie and are deliberately stupid. In the end it doesn’t matter and the current and future political, military, and economic situation is determined by the facts on the ground: when a bear is eating or mauling you it doesn’t matter if it growls or not, or if you scream or not. These interviews become part of the long term, historical, records, as well as people all over the world see now.
In the distinct hope that some western viewers see through the barrage of LIES emanating from the MSM.
Can you name a single Western politician who could withstand that level of hostile questioning without walking away or floundering like a beached fish?
It contrasts favourably with the inability of Western politicians to deal with hard questioning without sticking both feet into their mouths until they are chewing on their own fat arses.
Why wouldn’t the Russian government officials do it at every opportunity?
People in the West might not notice it immediately, but you can be sure the next time Bojo or the Truss twit speak in public a few more of their constituents take note and make a comparison with that Russian guy who calmly made his point with intelligence and wit. Time and Patience, the greatest warriors in history.
Well, that is the first time I have seen Lavrov giving a UK journalist the proverbial diplomatic ‘seven bells’. He has crossed a rubicon and is both happy and at peace having done so.
Russia is now talking directly at UK journalists and demanding that they answer questions about their own conduct.
Of course, Lavrov knows that that journalist has no job to return to if they answer those questions directly, since they can only be answered by the Head of BBC Global News and then only after receiving a party line briefing note from 10 Downing Street, the FCO and the Washington masters.
But he is saying: ‘if you expect me to answer your questions, you must change your habits of a lifetime by answering the Russian questions about the West’.
I’m just amazed he didn’t say: ‘And how many murders happened in Iraq in the early 2000s, aided and fully abetted by the UK military and Tony Blair? And for those murders and his subsequent global prostitution for Western powers, Tony Blair has just received the highest honour bestowed directly by Queen Elizabeth?? You call that ‘values’???’
The BBC has long had a deluded self-belief that it is a moral organisation, a truthful organisation and populated by honorable decent people.
Unfortunately, the cat has been out of the bag for quite a few years now that the BBC is awash with MI5/6 stooges and stool pigeons, that it is an unashamed elitist, globalist mouthpiece for the SE-based, privately educated, self-righteous and self-appointed woke elite, who seriously think that never-ending promotion of trans-rights represents the vast majority of enforced license payors who are committed heterosexual men and women. They seriously think that ‘equal rights for women’ means forcing a majority of women into every male sporting programme, even when not one of them have comparable, inside expertise from the male sport in question. They seriously think that they and only they understand what Brexit was/is about and unsurprisingly, as a grossly anti-democratic institution, they have always been craven prostitutes to all things EU. Their climate views are so reprehensible as to be treasonous and any BBC employee who owns a car or travels overseas ever again should be sacked and have all pension entitlements removed, since they need to learn how to be responsible adults responsible for their insidious propaganda.
The problem the British have is that there are no coruscating interviews with BBC employees, Directors and Trustees which forces their viewpoints to be challenged peremptorily in public. Their ‘complaints’ procedure is an outsourced whitewash.
The more that Russia can peremptorily challenge the employees of the BBC about their own behaviour, the better.
BBC website – reporting on same interview – attempts to twist Lavrov’s words about Russia “not squeaky clean”, and ridicules Lavrov’s previous (historically-correct) Hitler comment in order to try to discredit him.
“He repeated the official Kremlin line that there were Nazis in Ukraine. Russian officials often claim that their military is “de-Nazifying” the country. Mr Lavrov caused uproar recently when he tried to justify the Nazi slur regarding Ukraine’s president, who is Jewish, by making the ridiculous claim that Adolf Hitler had “Jewish blood”.”
The BBC is firmly embedded in – maybe even a central pillar to – the “Empire of Lies”
Mr Lavrov is a very patient man. Is this an interview or inquisition ? A lesser man would have taken a chair and had beaten up the BBC “journalist”.
We see that Ukraine is doing whatever it pleases, be it that
Howitzer shelling of Donetsk, be it attacks on Russian territory. And what a
Answer gives Russia? Russia keeps playing “the greatest” and says: “Woe, you dare
again to do something like that, then we will attack your decision centers.” the
Ukraine launches more attacks – and again Russia utters threatening words, yes
Actions are missing. The “attacks on the Ukrainian decision-making centers” have already
several military and politicians promised. But Ukraine attacks again and again, and always
again, Russia confines itself to statements without actions.
The ‘woes’ were about further attacks against Russia’s border towns, and not about Donetsk towns for some reason. There was an attack on a border town this week (I think only one since the warning). They might change their application of that warning because of what they know about the war. We can only wonder if Ukraine would have bombed a Donetsk city this week if it had meant also getting bombed in Kiev. (Maybe not, I agree.)
Since this week both Russian and Donetsk cities were attacked, and no such response has taken place, they must have their reasons which we newspaper readers have no clue to judge. It’s not vacillation. It’s strategy.
I am amazed at the patience and skill of the Russian Foreign Minister. Even I got impatient and my blood boiled to see some of the stupid assertions that BBC stooge (I cant bring myself to call him a journalist) asked, and I am not even Russian; I would have thrown him and his stupid propaganda company not just out of my room but also out of my country. Yet the learned Russian Foreign Minister answered his provocative questions frankly and clearly. I reminded me more of how a trained psychiatrist would deal with a crazy patient. No wonder the Collectivist West bans Russian channels. They have brainwashed their people to such an extent now they are at the level of crazy patients who can believe anything. Allowing reason and logic to shine on the Western hypnotic propaganda will be too much for the Westerners, who may even go completely mad.
I love this bit.
“I am telling you that the Ukrainian regime is bombing its own population and you are selling weapons to it so it can continue doing this. Now about genocide. Are you English? What if Ireland (not Northern Ireland but the Republic of Ireland) banned the English language? How would the English feel?
Question: They wouldn’t invade Ireland for certain.
Ergh….Britain invaded Iraq and killed over 1 million innocent men, women, and children based on a lie. Why would they need any excuse to invade Ireland? If they could get away with it they would.
The BBC twerp is not English. He is British and these are the scum who have been running this caper with the Khazarian Mafia for some time now. If I met the fcker in the street…..
Kevin, correction, it would be “invading Ireland, again”
This will never make it to the news at ten in full. Rosenberg gets slaughtered by Lavrov. Funny that the BBC is still allowed to operate in Russia, yet they banned RT in the UK.
I wonder if it will be shown on Russian tv….to give the audience some laughs…..perhaps the prisoner not to be named will watch. And realise he is doomed.
Damn, was it Kathy Newman interviewing him. :)
I cannot stomach these farcical ‘interviews’
Lavrov should not lower himself even for the sake of embarassing the ‘media’.
The Nazis thought they were racially superior. Now the West considers itself morally superior.
Lavrov is the absolute best. In my 60 year’s, I have not witnessed a better human. Speaking the truth to lies. I wish I knew him personally. The USA, the other world, has nothing compared to him.
First of all, thank you to the Saker staff and community for continuing to bring to light the truth.
I was born in the Empire of Lies and raised as Greek Orthodox so I have a special affinity for Russia and its people. I have been fortunate to have spent much time in Greece as I grew up and in Europe, in general, during my professional career. For so many years it has been a battle against normal, every-day friends and acquaintances, to spread the truth, the reality of what is happening.
I have been a “conspiracy theorist” since the mid-90s when Bill Clinton was in office. There are many of us who over the years, especially since Covid was released, have found increasing numbers joining the search for truth.
Thanks to Woogs who provided the video link to the interview. How refreshing to see the interaction between the “combatants”. Lavrov is a PhD study in diplomacy and a role model for all that seek such a role.
Also interesting to see that Steven wears his wedding(?) ring on the right hand after being there 30 years. Is his spouse Russian? Has he converted to Russian Orthodox? Regardless, he still seems to tow the line of his employer.
There is one portion of the video that struck me as emblematic of the Russian will to continue:
Interviewer: “About the current relations with the UK in general. To say that they are “bad” is an understatement….”
Lavrov: “I don’t think there’s even any room for maneuver any more, because both Johnson and Truss say openly that we should defeat Russia, we should force Russia to its knees. Go on then, do it!”
Regardless of what happens and what the West/Nato try to do, Russia will succeed, it has to. It will, unfortunately, be at the cost of many young lives.
Inflation is surging, gasoline for cars in increasing daily, fertilizer for growing crops is becoming scarce, and food will soon, too, become scarce and more expensive. We are told this is due to “Putin” however more and more people in the Empire of Lies are awakening. It is no longer Republican vs Democrat, for they are two side of the same coin, but rather who is the right person, with the right morals, who can represent us.
It is a long road. Lavrov mentions several times about Russia’s patience. I can only hope and pray that we will right the ship of the Empire of Lies, that the ones who seek to enrich themselves are eventually removed/jailed/die and that we can all live a life we were born to do.
Far fetched, no doubt, but we must start somewhere.
I have not been following Greek public debate too closely over the War in Ukraine but the actions of the Mitsoutakis government had been abysmal. The Greek media and most of the populous were against the NATO bombings in Yugoslavia. How things have changed! Even the reporting of the Greek minorities in Mariupol has been false. The Greek Orthodox Patriachiate has also been dubious and condemnation of Russian Patrichiate Kirill unfounded. I am a dual Canadian and Greek citizen and want to redact my citizenship. Moving to Russia never sounded better.
Lavrov rocks.
Sergey Lavrov has the patience of a saint.
This try by the BBC did not go well for them, as the ball is being taken away. More or less, it is some attempt to generate negative backlash for Russia, via the news. For the Occidentals, media is sacred, so they think it has staying power. The truth is reality always trumps BS.
Something big is brewing on the Occidental side. This looks really desperate. It amounts to almost the same cookie cutter approached used by CNN at the Forum. All of it is going down in flames. My take.
Well here’s a thing: as a Brit living in Britain, (and forced by law to fund the BBC, though I’m still awaiting a knock at my door about that…) Youtube tells me that the BBC has not made the video of this interview available in my country. Thank the Lord for the good folks at Tor Browser!
Another masterful presentation by Minister Lavrov, who patiently and in a measured manner restated the facts and history leading to Russia’s SMO. I’m guessing his real aim was the audiences in Zone B, rather than the sponges of gullibility who soak up every word of the BBC without any questioning.
In the past, the BBC has lied to me about:
Bloody Sunday
The Guildford and Birmingham bombings
The Falklands conflict
The miners strike
The Hillsborough football stadium disaster
The role of George Soros in the early 1990s financial crash
Tony Blair
Weapons of mass destruction
The death of Dr David Kelley
The ongoing cover-up of the activities of Jimmy Savile
The causes of the 2008 financial crash and the bail-outs of those responsible
Brexit
… to mention just a few of the reasons I don’t trust that mouthpiece of the Empire of Lies.
BBC ” journalists” are servile dogs whose only purpose is to promote the narrative for it’s detestable masters so that they maintain control of their mostly programmed listeners and viewers.
Mr Lavrov is a true human being, a bona fide man of honour and demonstrates determination, diplomacy, intelligence and a level of patience worthy of a Saint.
Why did Lavrov even waste his time with this BBC moron? Russians should round up every
foreign “journalist” and kick them out of Russia. Especially if the come from the idiot U$, and/or Britain.
Lavrov:
“May I inquire with you to better understand your media outlet’s policy on the Bucha tragedy? Did you report on the frame-up job in Bucha? You definitely said it had been carried out by Russia, right? The Guardian newspaper published in London later got preliminary forensic results which showed that most people whose dead bodies were shown by all the world’s TV channels got their wounds from artillery shrapnel.”
The Bucha story says that Russians killed those citizens on the one street shown on TV (less than 10 victims), and the street visited by all later to inspect it. Then many bodies in bags appeared and the government said that the enemy killed them. If anyone can believe the Bucha story just like that, he’ll be ready to believe anything (dumbed-down).
“Question: Recently, your President praised Peter the Great for reclaiming primordial Russian territories and even added that “to return and strengthen is also our lot.” How many more territories and what territories are you going to reclaim?
Sergey Lavrov: President Vladimir Putin said it all. I have nothing to add. I will tell you again: you want to forget everything that preceded this event…”
Putin said that he wants whatever the people of the Eastern territories want. In those territories, they speak Russian not Ukrainian (I read that fewer know that even in Kiev), and they must know about the things Russia is doing and announcing for Crimea’s progress. Is it really clear that Western Ukraine would want to remain as an independent state? Has Western Ukraine ever wanted to be an independent state separated from the rest of Ukraine? I don’t know them (don’t even see them). Russia will want them to join Russia for sure. If their wish is not for independence, wouldn’t joining Russia be what they choose to do if the alternative is to become poorer and more dependent on other countries too? Russia also made clear that Poland can’t have Western Ukraine (the SMO is not for that).
My generation pay £159.00 for a colour TV Licence to the BBC per annum.
My daughters generation will pay £0.00
Bye bye BBC.
Crush those MI6 subhumans
this was not an interview, it was a fight! Kudos to Lavrov for not taking any shit from these propaganda peddlers camouflaged as journos. I wish there were any of them that showed the same aggressiveness with Western politicians
…call them what really they are….urinologists & prestitutess…….
The Brutish Broadcasting Corporation has no relation to the truth, and makes it decisions without incorporating, or even listening to, the facts. Lavrov with his experience and infinite patience needs to be listened to by all.
I have to say that it would be impossible for me to act like Mr Lavrov as per the interview. Yes I watched the YouTube clip and there is no way that I would have extended a handshake with that piece of filth.
I hope that Mr Lavrov washed his hands soon after.
Lavrov did a good job as always.
Russia is winning militarily, therefore the worst possible outcome from an interview like this would be anything that could be remotely mistaken for a conciliatory stance of gesture.
Therefore, Lavrov stiff-armed the lying BBC at every single opportunity, and even created a few, which was nice to see.
Thankfully, the BBC continued to lie in Lavrov’s face, so Lavrov’s task wasn’t too difficult, though he probably felt he needed a good shower afterwards. Always recommended after a BBC interview.
– Shyaku
BBC at it’s worst, Lavrov at his best.
The political arm of BBC was never about doing serious interviews, only an exercise to attempt to create a lot of “gotcha” moments.
A great interview should based on dialogue, curiosity, mutual respect, objectivity, putting yourself in the other person’s shoes.
This interviewer is obviously fake and pompous. And my reason for saying so? From the look of the set of questions, I noticed that they all were merely carefully prepared statements, with no aim to learn, but only to provoke, to “gotcha”.
I am sure the entire political arm of BBC came together to produce these questions because I simply can not imagine someone having worked 30 years in Russia is so willfully ignorant of past and current events of the country of residence, to come up with such dribble.
I frankly admire Sergey Viktorovich for putting up which such a goon, BBC being the worst of the worst, particularly sickening when hiding their pure evil behind some BS mannerism of another time.
I couldn’t stop temptation to share this post.
Beer and Profits…
🙂
https://philosophyofgoodnews.com/2022/06/19/beer-and-profits/
I dare say that Lavrov is the greatest foreign statesman in Russian modern history. He speaks with unequal truth and honesty while diplomatically defending and protecting Russian national interests. In fact , he is a better spokesman for Serbia’s national interest than their own diplomatic corps.
What a disgusting interviewer!!! The west is full of them.
The arrogance and open disrespect of the BBC interviewer is beyond belief.
These people actually think they are on the level with the foreign minister of Russia!
Like, equal to equal, or more like superior to inferior.
Yet when Lavrov does attempt to engage him directly, he dodges.
At the same time, it is virtually par for the course, this ego and hubris that has been bred into BBC and other journalists.
They think it is their job to win a fisticuff with a high-level foreign diplomat, rather than to draw out information.
If I were Lavrov I would be sputtering eff-yous at this BBC jerk with his “know-it-all” questions. I guess I am no diplomat!