Tag Archives: Sergey Lavrov

Going to Samarkand, by Pepe Escobar

A good part of the world seems more excited by the Russia-China axis than whatever it is the U.S. is offering. From Pepe Escobar at strategic-culture.org:

The SCO and other pan-Eurasian organizations play a completely different – respectful, consensual – ball game. And that’s why they are catching the full attention of most of the Global South.

The meeting of the SCO Ministerial Council  in Tashkent this past Friday involved some very serious business. That was the key preparatory reunion previous to the SCO summit in mid-September in fabled Samarkand, where the SCO will release a much-awaited “Declaration of Samarkand”.

What happened in Tashkent was predictably unreported across the collective West and still not digested across great swathes of the East.

So once again it’s up to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to cut to the chase. The world’s foremost diplomat – amidst the tragic drama of the American-concocted Era of Non-Diplomacy, Threats and Sanctions – has singled out the two overlapping main themes propelling the SCO as one of the key organizations on the path towards Eurasia integration.

  1. Interconnectivity and “the creation of efficient transport corridors”. The War of Economic Corridors is one of the key features of the 21st
  2. Drawing “the roadmap for the gradual increase in the share of national currencies in mutual settlements.”

Yet it was in the Q@A session that Lavrov for all practical purposes detailed all the major trends in the current, incandescent state of international relations. These are the key takeaways.

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Lavrov Says Russia’s Goals in Ukraine Now Expand Beyond Donbas, by Dave DeCamp

Several commentators have noted the Russian strategy of slowly ratcheting up the pain. This appears to be part of that strategy. From Dave DeCamp at antiwar.com:

The Russian diplomat said if the West continues to pump arms into Ukraine, Russia will move further into the country

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday that Russia’s goals in Ukraine are now expanded beyond the Donbas region, citing the failed peace talks and Western military aid to Ukraine.

When Russia pulled its forces out of areas in northern Ukraine, Moscow said it would focus on the “liberation” of the breakaway Donbas republics, known as the Donestk People’s Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR). Lavrov’s comments are the first time a high-level Russian official acknowledged Moscow’s war aims extend beyond that region.

Lavrov said that geographical realities changed after Russian and Ukrainian negotiators failed to reach a breakthrough at talks that were held in Istanbul back in March. “Now the geography is different, it’s far from being just the DPR and LPR, it’s also Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions and a number of other territories,” the Russian foreign minister said.

During the peace talks in March, Russia demanded that Ukraine recognize the DPR and LPR as independent and drop its claim to Crimea, which Russia has controlled since 2014. Before Russia invaded on February 24, Moscow wanted Kyiv to fulfill the Minsk accords to end the war in the Donbas, which would have granted the DPR and LPR autonomy, but they would have remained part of Ukraine.

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Russia Monitoring Biden’s “Persecution” Of Capitol Hill Rioters & Their “Opposition Rights”, by Tyler Durden

One of the more enjoyable facets of Vladimir Putin and Sergey Lavrov is their sardonic wits. Anybody or anything that makes fun of just about any aspect of US foreign policy should be encouraged. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

Moscow had some stinging words for Washington which were also hilariously ironic on Monday, as both Putin and Biden look ahead to their in-person summit set for June 16 in Geneva. Warning of “uncomfortable” signals to come, the Kremlin indicated that high on the agenda would be a range of human rights and free speech issues in the United States, particularly the “persecution” of those behind the January 6 Capitol riot by the Biden administration.

The words appear Moscow’s ultimate trolling response to Biden remarks on Sunday wherein he vowed to confront Putin on egregious human rights abuses: “Of course, we will be ready to discuss everything, including problems that exist in the United States,” Lavrov told reporters Monday following Biden’s statements. According to AFP:

He said Russia was monitoring the “persecution” of those behind the January 6 riot at the US Capitol.

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