(Paris) Caustic, brutal and charming, the stainless head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov went in a few days from the status of feared and talented negotiator to that of pariah on the international scene, as illustrated by a humiliating boycott on Tuesday of his interventions at UN Headquarters.
Posted at 2:04 p.m.
Appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs by Putin in 2004, this tall and now willingly gruff man, his eyes rimmed with thin glasses, is today under international sanctions for his support for the war in Ukraine.
Sergei Lavrov, who has been faithfully executing the policy of Russian President Vladimir Putin for two decades – without a priori belonging to the first circle –, demonstrated a few weeks ago his skill in rolling his interlocutors in flour.
In mid-February receiving his British counterpart Liz Truss, who had come to Moscow to try to avoid war in Ukraine, he asked her: “Do you recognize Russia’s sovereignty over the regions of Rostov and Voronezh? »
The minister, whose first visit to Russia was, fell into the trap. The UK will never “recognize” Russia’s sovereignty over these regions, she replied… when Rostov-on-Don and Voronezh are simply Russian cities close to Ukraine.
ambush
The error, hastily corrected by the British ambassador, led Sergei Lavrov to say he was “disappointed” with this exchange. He even accused his counterpart of being ill-prepared for the meeting.
This ambush on this visiting counterpart symbolizes the transformation in recent years of Mr. Lavrov, who from a master of diplomacy respected even by his enemies has turned into an offensive weapon of the Kremlin.
His increasingly grumpy ways earned him the nickname “Mr. Niet” (Mr. No), which was bestowed on Andrei Gromyko, Soviet foreign minister for nearly 30 years during the Cold War. .
“Lavrov, rightly sanctioned by the US and the EU, was my deputy in the 90s. Before, he supported me. Today I would watch my back if he was behind me,” former Russian foreign minister Andrei Kozyrev, who served under Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, said of him and launched a campaign urging diplomats Russians to resign in protest against the war.
Fervent defender of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, Sergei Lavrov now appears like Vladimir Putin on the list of people sanctioned by the European Union (EU).
The UK and US followed suit, with the US Treasury describing Sergei Lavrov as Putin’s “main propagandist” for “advancing the false narrative that Ukraine is the aggressor”.
On Tuesday, many delegations, including those from Western countries, in solidarity with Kyiv, boycotted Mr Lavrov’s speech – given by videoconference due to the EU overflight ban – at the UN headquarters. in Geneva. Shortly before the release of his video, Western diplomats ostensibly left the proceedings.
Affront
An affront to a man who had earned the respect of his peers for his command of the workings of the UN during his 10-year tenure as Russia’s ambassador to the UN compound from 1994.
While some found him infuriating, he managed to forge good relations with other of his counterparts, including former US Secretary of State John Kerry, during the negotiation of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Lavrov, who is fluent in Sinhalese in addition to English due to his past diplomatic work in Sri Lanka, enjoys personal popularity in Russia. He led the ruling party list in last year’s elections.
Before these elections, Russian investigative media had claimed that he had a secret relationship with a woman in charge of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whom he would have showered with gifts, cars and other goods.