Here is an interview with Sergey Victorovich Lavrov, Russia's Foreign Minister, from August 15th. Sorry about the delay to post. F.M. Lavrov's family is from Armenia, by the way. He is one of the great diplomats of all time. Russia does not issue ultimatums, but the message brought forward in this interview, which, different from a certain fool's 4 AM tweets, is actual national policy. This is an excellent interview, in Russian, very different from the belligerence seen on "Meet the Press" in the former USA.
FULL: 'Much Harsher Response', Russian FM Lavrov Puts Japan, NATO, Ukraine On Notice After Putin's Kuril Visit | Times Now World | August 15
Ukraine: Lavrov says Russia will make its methods "much
harsher" against what Moscow says is feeding Kyiv's military
machine.
Japan: Lavrov accuses Tokyo of abandoning the engagement-focused
approach associated with Shinzo Abe in favor of greater
militarization and closer alignment with Washington.
Germany: Lavrov attacks Berlin's ambition to become Europe's
leading military power, highlighting Chancellor Friedrich Merz's
use of the word "again."
Trump factor: Despite the escalating rhetoric, Lavrov says Donald
Trump is capable of bringing Russia and Ukraine to the
negotiating table.
The bigger question: Are these separate warnings — or signs
of a broader Russia-West confrontation?
This interview comes as the Russia-Ukraine war continues to reshape relations between Moscow, Washington, NATO, Japan and Europe. Lavrov's comments connect the Ukraine conflict with Japan's military shift and Germany's growing defense ambitions, raising wider questions about Russia-NATO tensions, European rearmament and the future of Trump's Ukraine peace efforts.
INTERVIEWER- In Japan's military doctrine, Russia is named the main threat. How can we comment on this? And would this have been possible under Shinzo Abe?
LAVROV- Shinzo Abe was an absolutely proper politician who understood that national interests could not be secured without interaction with the Russian Federation. Those who replaced him believe that these interests must be secured together with the United States by initiating the militarization of Japan. At the ASEAN events with partners in the Philippines, the Japanese minister made a statement after these events saying, "Look, we discussed bilateral affairs and the regional situation with Lavrov." I was astonished because this happened during a ceremonial banquet where there was a long table where all the ministers were seated and suddenly from behind someone touches me on the shoulder. I turn around our Japanese colleague is standing there and says how glad I am to see you. How good - I didn't even have time to stand up. Well, I shook his hand and he went to his seat.
And this then is what they call discussing bilateral regional issues. There was recent information that some Japanese delegation of businessmen arrived. They said straight out, "We have firm instructions from the country's leadership not to discuss any projects with you."
INTERVIEWER- Sergey Victorovich, the European Union announced inspections of Russian merchant ships and calls them a shadow fleet. What is this in general? What does it mean? And what is really behind these inspections?
LAVROV- The European Union invented this concept a long time ago. It is not listed in any document. The European Union decided to apply its own law. If you can call an illegal decision by Brussels a law, meaning that it is necessary to limit Russia's ability to earn on world markets. They effectively introduced a ban on the trade of energy resources of the Russian Federation and all ships that do not obey the European Union under any flag are declared a shadow fleet. This is a very dangerous path because they declare that their decisions are above international law. They allowed themselves not just to stop and inspect ships, but to seize the cargo and sell it to get some revenue and transfer this revenue to Ukraine so that it continues to strengthen its Nazi regime. Putin said very clearly and calmly that we will respond to this robbery, to this piracy, symmetrically.
We will choose the targets ourselves and the targets will be ships that operate in the interests of countries that have proclaimed robbery and piracy as their official policy.
INTERVIEWER- How can we win with such unscrupulous counterparts because we have completely different values. After all, even in ancient times, our princes used to say, "I am coming at you before campaigns." But these are completely different values, far from these terrorist acts.
LAVROV- Moreover, after every such terrorist act, representatives of the regime proudly boast on social networks and other resources about how great it was that they struck a beach, a dormitory where girls were studying, teachers, and other strictly civilian objects.
INTERVIEWER- How do we fight such opponents? We won't stoop to their methods, will we?
LAVROV- We will not stoop to them. But we will make our own methods much harsher to destroy everything that feeds Kiev's military machine from the West. And we are already doing this. And they are already starting to groan. And it is no coincidence that more and more voices from different parts of our shared space are calling to stop immediately. That will not work. We need to stop when there is a long-term reliable sustainable settlement. If we suddenly stop now at the line of contact, we would in essence allow the feat of our grandfathers and great-grandfathers who defeated Nazism to be erased. This is impossible to consider. And it is not just about how comfortably someone lives today. Our people are suffering. As I say, they are dying from these terrorist acts. But it is about our responsibility for the thousand-year history of the Russian State.
INTERVIEWER- A German journalist perfectly openly, at a press conference of Vucik and Zelensky, says to Zelensky, "How can we Germans help you Ukrainians kill Russians?" This is in general. This is mind-boggling. What happened to Western diplomacy?
LAVROV- Of course, this person is unworthy of holding any position in media structures, let alone any official positions in the government apparatus. The metastases of Nazism continue to break through to the top in German society under the leadership of Merz who openly declares the need to again make Germany the main military power in Europe. Whether he understands what the word "again" means in this case I am not sure. But regarding by the way regarding this situation when this question was asked at the press conference of Zelensky and Vucik, well,, I saw that President Vudik he was simply taken aback but of course we would have liked to hear some kind of reaction from our Serbian friends considering their huge contribution to the victory over Nazism.
INTERVIEWER- Vudik signed a document supporting Ukraine while the memory of the bombing of Yugoslavia remains with the people. It turns out that Serbia is taking the side of the West. How can we comment on this?
LAVROV- It is not easy for Aleksandar Vudik. He is a very experienced politician and he is committed to the course of European integration. At this stage, the European Union is mocking him and simply blackmailing him.
They say, "Yes, look, you have been standing in line for a long time, but we will accelerate negotiations when you fulfill two main requirements. First, recognize the independence of Kosovo and second, join all our actions and decisions regarding Russia." He has courageously withstood this pressure for more than a year.
We sell gas to Serbia at very favorable prices and never demand anything from Serbia except that it would be unacceptable if our Serbian brothers participate in arming the Kiev regime.
President Vudik made special decisions prohibiting such actions and the agreement to Zelensky's persistent requests to be received probably reflected Aleksandar Vudik's intention to slightly ease the pressure from the European Union. This pressure is brazen and boorish. They act as if they already have a fourth right.
INTERVIEWER- Now the head of Bulgaria on the contrary wants to leave the coalition of the willing and says that everything must be resolved peacefully. Well, not peacefully, diplomatically. Do you think the European Union will still be able to push him through?
LAVROV- Well, Rumen Georgiev Radev, I know him well. He ran in the elections under the slogan of national interests, not submission to European Union bureaucracy. There are many such examples when people with similar intentions still got into power and behave differently. Someone might be able to withstand their principled convictions with which they went into the elections and someone will be susceptible to pressure. Let them figure it out among themselves over there.
INTERVIEWER- Regarding Witkoff and Kushner who once again cannot manage to get to us. You communicated with both of them personally and in your feeling as an experienced diplomat: Can any of them actually influence Trump in any way?
LAVROV- I proceed from the premise that if such trust is placed in them that they have influence on the president, he trusts them. We do not refuse to talk to them. If they come, they know that President Putin is ready to receive them once again. Another matter is what they will come with because when Witkoff came a little over a year ago, probably it was August 5 to 6. He brought a proposal from Donald Trump. The president took it to work and arriving in Alaska, he said, "Donald, here you sent us a proposal, I thought. There are things that require compromise, but your proposal in the form in which you sent it to me, I accept it." Then a pause, then sanctions against Lukoil and RosNeft. In parallel, the leaders of the European Union and NATO together with Zelensky dashed to Washington, hung on the arms of the president of the United States to pull him away from further initiatives.
Then subsequently, Marco Rubio said, answering a journalist's question on how to deal with Anchorage, "We thought probably we cannot be mediators because we are supporting Ukraine." A couple of weeks later, he said the opposite thing again.
In any case, only President Trump is capable of sitting Ukraine and Russia at the negotiating table and finding a settlement. It seems as if they also support Ukraine, these weapons and intelligence data.
INTERVIEWER- That is exactly why Ukrainians are striking our MPVs so precisely. Small business suffers. Ordinary people suffer. Why can't we before sitting down with them at the negotiating table with Witkoff with Kushner, first issue an ultimatum so that they don't do this?
LAVROV- We do not issue ultimatums. We have passed a whole series of questions to the State Department with a request for comment, including about the intelligence data, including that the United States is much more deeply involved, including in the organization and execution of strikes deep into the territory of the Russian Federation on civilian targets. We will wait for an answer.
INTERVIEWER- Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Kazan, met with you, with Vladimir Putin and of course the conversation was, you confirmed this to us too, about the fact that Turkey might again be a mediator in the negotiations but Brett Marddogen at the NATO summit signs documents on restoring the territorial integrity of the Ukrainian regime. Can we, should we generally count on such mediators?
LAVROV- But for Turkey, yes, she wants both to be a member of NATO, the largest army in NATO. She wants to have a relationship with the European Union. Although deep down she understands that she will never be accepted into the EU, she wants to have a good relationship with Russia because we have many economic projects. We have a lot in common in our history, the Caucuses, the Black Sea. And so Turkey is sincerely interested in the Black Sea being stable.
Now Turkish colleagues are again saying that we need to somehow agree so that shipping is not the subject of attacks. But we did not start this. And when a Turkish dry cargo ship or a tanker, a Turkish civilian vessel is hit by a drone of the armed forces of Ukraine. When these same drones attacked the infrastructure of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium more than once already in the Caspian Sea, directly hitting vessels related to the American company Chevron and Exxon Mobile.
And in response to this, neither Turkey nor the United States publicly declare that these actions of the Ukrainian heroists are unacceptable. They just, when we inquired, well, how are you? Will you put up with this? No, but we send them a signal there. Like regarding the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, JD Vance, the vice president sent some signal to Zelensky. The Turks told us, "We also tell them like this, don't touch, but publicly everyone is silent." This is also indicative. What is characteristic is that in response to these exhortations, Zelensky's regime, as far as I can judge by the information that appeared, did not promise to stop strikes. He promised to stop strikes on those ships that are not related to the Russian Federation. And apparently this explanation was deemed acceptable. But we have a large agenda with Turkey. I think that these trails that remain in connection with NATO membership, in connection with some relations with the European Union, well, they are inevitable.
INTERVIEWER- Sergey Victorovich, a more informal question if I may. What quality of yours do you think made you who you are?
LAVROV- I have never engaged in self-promotion at all. But you know, probably I have always had a very responsible attitude towards what I did to not let down those who offered me and who appointed me to the corresponding position both in Sri Lanka and in the central apparatus and in New York and now again here in Moscow.
§Comment: Western propaganda still objects to referring to the Ukrainian "Nazi" regime, while ignoring the insignia on their uniforms, their celebration of their Nazi heroes to the point of disinterring them with reburial in places of honour, and building shrines to them on torn-down Eastern Orthodox cathedrals.
Note that if Witkoff and Kushner, representatives of the Department of Bribery, show up at a negotiation, they are there to try to buy off the other side, in America's Silver or Lead strategy.
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