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 Putin’s ceasefire request from over the summer and that Moscow wants to address the root causes of this conflict, not just freeze it for some time. The spring 2022 draft peace treaty could form the basis for resuming talks with Ukraine if the latter revokes its decree on banning them, though some details would have to change. He also warned against letting Ukraine use Western long-range weapons deep inside of Russia.
As for the second, Lavrov emphasized the regional dimension of multipolarity by referencing several leading blocs before describing BRICS as a model of multilateral diplomacy and confirming the importance of the UN as a forum for aligning the interests of all countries. Respect for one another’s interests, a greater say in global governance for developing countries, and mutual cooperation are considered the driving forces behind this trend. China also shares Russia’s views on this too, he said.
Lavrov doesn’t expect that anything will change in Russian-US relations after the election regardless of who wins since both parties are committed to countering his country. The Kremlin will consider whatever new proposals might be made in the event that this happens, however, thus leaving open the possibility for improving their ties if the will exists on the US’ side and it respects Russia’s interests. He ended by hoping that the US will stop looking for adventures abroad, but this comes off as wishful thinking.
There’s nothing novel in what he said and those who’ve been following this conflict closely won’t learn anything by reading his interview, but the importance rests in the fact that average Americans might hear more about Russia’s actual policies towards these subjects for the first time. They’ve mostly been insulated from this since it hasn’t been accurately reported by their media until now. To Newsweek’s credit, they shared Lavrov’s responses without any editorializing too, thus removing the usual filter.
None of this means that average Americans will now all of a sudden agree with everything that Russia is aiming to achieve in Ukraine and the world more broadly, nor might they be disabused of the false perception that it’s meddling in support of Trump, but it might warm some of them up to these ideas. Depending on the battlefield progress in the coming months, the outcome of the election, and next month’s G20 Summit in Rio, the trappings of a realistic compromise might finally begin to appear.
In that scenario, other Mainstream Media outlets might follow Newsweek’s lead by requesting interviews with Lavrov and other Russian officials. The purpose would be to precondition the public for accepting that the West’s maximalist goals in this proxy war aren’t realistic and that some of Russia’s goals aren’t as threatening as they were earlier portrayed. Of course, it’s also possible that nothing might happen, in which case this interview will stand out as an exception instead of the start of a new trend.
