Free Republic

The United States and Russia are very close to engaging in 'direct military conflict,' Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned in an interview published Friday in a Turkey daily, just days ahead of a US presidential election. 'Under the current president (Joe Biden), who has taken the downward spiral of Russophobia in the US to its logical conclusion, our countries are on the brink of direct military conflict,' he told the Hurriyet daily, without elaborating. Asked about next week's US election pitting former Republican president Donald Trump against Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, Lavrov said the outcome would make little difference...

This might be the first time that average Americans read a top Russian official’s views without a filter. It’s rare nowadays for Russian officials to give interviews to Western media, both because the first suspect that their words won’t be accurately reported while the second fear being “canceled”, which is why it’s so important that Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov just gave a written interview to Newsweek. He concisely summarized his country’s positions on the Ukrainian Conflict, multipolarity, and the US’ upcoming presidential election, which will be reviewed. Regarding the first, he reaffirmed the official position that Kiev should comply with...

The United States will face "dangerous consequences" if it presses on with growing military aid to Ukraine rather than backing a proposed Russian settlement that would see Moscow take over swathes of territory, the man serving as Russian President Vladimir Putin's top diplomat for 20 years said in exclusive responses to Newsweek questions. Well over two and a half years after Putin ordered a "special military operation" against Ukraine, invading the country in what has become the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Kremlin offers a viable blueprint to end the...

Gilad Erdan reads out names of fallen Israelis to council members, lights memorial candle in chamber, says UN rejected requests to move session to another day NEW YORK — Israel’s envoy to the United Nations walked out of the Security Council and read the names of Israelis killed in the past year to protest the body holding a session critical of Israel on Memorial Day. The periodic Security Council session on “the Palestinian question” was held at UN headquarters in New York and was led by Russia. “Today is one of the most sacred days of the year for the...

Led by a respected former PM, and given a lot of resources by the Russian State, meet the Imperial Orthodox Palestine SocietyThe Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, a humanitarian NGO founded in Russia 140 years ago, now plays a key role in expanding Russian influence in the Middle East and beyond. As relations between Russia and the Western world plunge, Middle East and African countries engage in developing ties with Moscow. It is also quite remarkable that this rapprochement is based not so much on political foundations as on the common values and moral foundations. The Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (IOPS)...

Mr. Putin expressed that endorsement this month, noting that a change in sanctions against Russia could come should she be elected. Now Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is walking back Mr. Putin’s statement. “It was a joke,” Mr. Lavrov said in an interview with Sky News Arabia that was posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website Friday. “President Putin has a good sense of humor. He often jokes during his statements and interviews.” “I see no long-term differences in our attitude to the current or previous elections in the United States, because it is ruled by the notorious deep state,”...

Disclaimer: Lots of f-bombs in the audio. NSFW. To see the interview with Scott Ritter please skip to the 4:00 mark. Scott Ritter responds to questions by the host. Per Ritter his passport was seized without a stated reason. Ritter speculates as to the reason for the passport seizure. He also says he expects a nuclear war between the US and Russia in the next forty days. The gist of his commentary is that he was going to Russia to appeal to the Russian people not to start a nuclear war, clearly implying that Russia wants to start a nuclear...

In an unexpected moment, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov referred to his leader, Vladimir Putin, as Chinese President Xi Jinping's "donkey" and admitted that nothing now depends on Moscow. He made the eyebrow-raising comment in response to a question from a Russian propagandist about an informal meeting planned after the official talks during Putin’s visit to Beijing. “You know, as they say in the East, the guest is the master's donkey. Therefore, of course, all programs depend on the kind offers that the Chinese president and his team have made to our president,” Lavrov explained, offering a glimpse into the...

Russian President Putin vowed to 'knock the teeth out' of nations who grab pieces of the state's vast territory Secretary of State Blinken warned Moscow the North Pole must remain 'free of conflict' at Thursday's summit His Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov hit back, saying the Kremlim saw 'no grounds' for conflict in the Arctic, but warned the West about militarising on Russia's doorstep and said the country would defend itself Comes as Russia revealed a massive polar military airbase, Nagurskoye, in the Franz Josef Land archipelago It has been heavily militarised with missiles, a radar system and a runway handling...

Mystery surrounds a secret trip by Squad members Ilhan Omar and Pramila Japayal to Communist Cuba that coincided with a visit by Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. The two leaders of the Democrats progressive caucus sparked fury when details of last week's trip emerged with top Republicans accusing them of a Communist 'pilgrimage.' -snip- 'No surprise that the Hamas Caucus made a pilgrimage to Cuba last week to get a refresher course on communism to bring back to DC,' tweeted Florida Congressman Mike Waltz.

On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the suspension of support by several countries to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) amounts to punishment for the population of Gaza. "What has happened and is happening is collective punishment, prohibited by international humanitarian law," he said, commenting on the decision of 16 countries to stop funding this UN agency. Such a decision came after Israel said that a dozen UNRWA workers participated in the Hamas attack on October 7, which triggered the Israeli offensive against Gaza. Lavrov criticized the "wrong decision" to proceed...

While speaking at a United Nations Security Council meeting in New York City on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the United States of providing Ukraine with "old junk" weapons while building up its military complex. In November, The Washington Post reported that of the $68 billion in military aid Congress approved for Ukraine, nearly 90 percent went back to the U.S. to build new weapons or replace ones sent to Ukraine from American stockpiles. The Post wrote that a Ukrainian official said "every single state in the U.S. contributes to this effort," thus creating more American jobs. The...

The Hamas terror organization stated that they appreciated Lavrov's comments, saying his comments "confirms Washington’s criminal role in the continued suffering of our Palestinian people." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, in an interview with Russian media on Thursday, that he doubted the conspiracy theory that Israel knew in advance of plans that Hamas were planning on committing a massacre on October 7. “A lot of conspiracy theories are now appearing. Just the other day, our television and social networks once again conveyed a message from Western media, Western journalists, and researchers that the Israeli leadership, a year before October...

Russia’s foreign minister on Wednesday said Moscow cannot recognize Israel’s methods against the Palestinian group Hamas as "acceptable." -snip- “Neighborhoods are being razed to the ground, more than 18,000 civilians have already died, this figure is increasing every day, two-thirds of them are women and children. The situation is terrible," Lavrov said. His remarks come days after a conversation between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Vladimir Putin, in which the former criticized the cooperation between Russia and Iran, and expressed his dissatisfaction with the positions taken “against Israel by Russian representatives at the UN and in other forums.”

Russia and Iran are firming up bilateral relations in a 'trusting' atmosphere, Russia's foreign ministry said early on Tuesday after its chief, Sergei Lavrov, was received by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during a visit to Tehran. "In a traditionally trusting atmosphere, current aspects of the bilateral agenda were substantively discussed with an emphasis on further building up the entire complex of multifaceted Russian-Iranian partnership," the foreign ministry said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

Iran has warned Israel of regional escalation if the Israeli military enters Gaza for a ground invasion as the war with Hamas enters its second week. “If the measures aimed at immediately stopping the Israeli attacks that are killing children in the Gaza Strip end in a deadlock, it is highly probable that many other fronts will be opened. This option is not ruled out and this is becoming increasingly more probable,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told Al Jazeera on Sunday. “If the Zionist entity [Israel] decides to enter Gaza, the resistance leaders will turn it into a graveyard...

After the ceasefire, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) should take seriously its obligation to implement its resolutions on the establishment of a Palestinian state, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. Speaking to the press after the meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Foreign Ministers, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasized that he hoped that with the end of hostilities, Palestine and Israel would return to implementing United Nations (UN) resolutions. "We hope that after the ceasefire, everyone will take seriously the obligation to implement the UN Security Council resolutions on the establishment of a Palestinian state," he...

Russia’s foreign minister has told the UN that Ukraine’s proposed peace plan and the latest proposals to revive the Black Sea grain initiative were “not realistic”. Sergei Lavrov spoke at a press conference on 23 September after a week of intense global diplomacy at the annual gathering of world leaders at UN headquarters in New York where Ukraine and its western allies sought to drum up support for Kyiv. “It is completely not feasible,” Lavrov said of a 10-point peace blueprint promoted by Kyiv. “It is not possible to implement this. It’s not realistic and everybody understands this but, at...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov may not be able to attend when the UN Security Council meets in the United States later in April. He has not yet been granted a visa to enter the United States writes Svenska Dagbladet with reference to the Russian news agency Tass. "No visa has been issued yet. Not a single visa has been issued," Lavrov told the news agency. The Security Council has a rotating presidency, and Russia currently holds the presidency and Lavrov is the chairman. [Original text in Swedish - translation by SB]

During an event in New Delhi, where he had been taking part in talks among the G20 group of industrialized nations,...In a session that was part of the "Raisina Dialogue 2023" series, Lavrov was asked by one audience member how the war had affected Russia's energy strategy. "The war which we are trying to stop and which was launched against us," Lavrov said, before laughter rang out among the audience.