Everyone—and the exceptions prove the rule—respects and deeply admires Sergei Lavrov. Amidst this turbulent ocean of lies and betrayals, Lavrov has always been and remains a beacon of faith. He will always be remembered as one of the greatest diplomats in history.
Odessa free port? Like Trieste? Which has never been a free port in practice, since it's always been under Italian control and thus NATO, which now wants to control and militarize it even more!
Thanks for the sources. I don’t know if my skepticism was strong enough in relation to the Kommersant report which is hearsay at best. There’s not even the anonymous official being cited to lend some authenticity. The last longer item was even more speculative with the NY Times being cited along with Tsargrad. I’m not even that imaginative. But the lack of anything from the Kremlin tells me it’s there for a reason. I’m mired in Putin’s appearance at the Movement of the First Congress and Board Meeting.
The UN Secretary General is hopelessly compromised, and it's too bad the Russians don't reveal what it is as it's a deserved humiliation of any empty suit. It's the West's (US) corruption of multilateral organisations, and when the Americans don't get what they want they pick up the ball and leave. Ukraine and now Gaza, an ineffective UN mechanism, so the question is how long for the League of Nations v2.0?
I agree Guterres is a failure, and he’s been outed quite well by Lavrov, but he can’t be impeached and removed. That he was reelected was clearly a mistake. Lavrov also talks about the “privatization” of the UN’s main administrative bodies like WHO and UNESCO and the need for their Western members to be purged. Since the main portion of the UN’s financial support comes from Westen nations, the RoW hasn’t been able to advance its own agenda—Western nations had a 30-40 year head-start before many of the RoW even became UN members, which is half the UN’s existence, and in that time the UN was polluted. Look at the damage USAID has done, which will take decades to repair. There were flaws in the League that were mostly fixed with the UN Charter. I agree with Lavrov that the Charter itself is healthy and modern, but the actions of the west in violation for many decades has made it seem as if it’s unworkable. Yet, the West remains in the UN; asking why is a very good question.
As BRICS and other multilateral organizations grow and gain power, the balance of power within the UN will also change and become closer to what was envisioned. That outcome isn’t one that will be instantly gratified; patience and steadfastness will be required.
Thanks, very important interview. Not sure how likely it is to hold up (as in, I've yet to see any hint of it holding up so far) but at least US and Russia showed (1) it's possible to come up with a thorough mechanism by which to try, and (2) showed there are limited but worthwhile objectives, and they can be done in a verifiable way, and sequenced in small steps so that the implementation is built up without relying on promises made by the US side.
It'll be nice to have a demonstration of that, even if it is not respected by Ukraine and breaks down quickly as I think is likely.
Also feel like there must be a lot of side topics not discussed, to do with upcoming US war on Yemen and Iran ...
Respected by Ukraine? Lavrov knows that Z is a puppet and everything comes through Washington. Zelensky just does what he's told. Trump doesn't want peace or he'd stop funding the war and expanding NATO spending.
That's just it, Trump doesn't want peace. He just wants a free hand to do war somewhere else, namely Iran. To do this, his admin is trying to have it both ways, to 'keep pressure on Russia', while having to give substantial concessions too. So that's why it is a halfway deal at best. Zelensky the man is irrelevant, but Ukrainian klepto-fascists as a group, I am confident, will try to squeeze more out of this situation by obstructing whatever Washington and Moscow come up with - knowing Trump needs at least something from Putin's for Iran. I think obstructing here is trivially easy for the Kiev regime, and they have European support for it too (at least for now).
If only it was Russia and China negotiating which parts of America & Canada to divvy up between themselves!
We'd have clean streets, law & order, transport/traffic would move at high speed, energy would be cheap and agriculture and commerce would be flourish. Disputes anywhere in the globe would be resolved. Nazis, Jihadi extremists and other unsavoury elements like paedophiles would all be dumped on a penal colony/island. If they got too rowdy we'd fire an Olly Oreshnik occasionally into proceedings.
Everybody should ask themselves this one question. If you opened your shutters, blinds, curtains, whatever in the morning and you saw a battalion of the following options ( Nazis, HTS, Russian Army ) march down your street toward the City Centre, how many times would you shit in your pants?
I suggest that the speculation about Odessa is premature and Putin is sowing feints by making mention. After the past decades of Putins leadership, any suggestion that Russia would enable the USA to dump its rump on Odessa and claim it as a key US port would be ridiculous. Sure it may be come along bait for Trump but I cannot imagine the Russian Duma and Army ever tolerating such a betrayal let alone the millions of Russians who have a keen political sophistication. Putin might occasionally be unfathomable and apparently wimpish but he picks his fights carefully with survival paramount.
Regardless the entire war theatre seems about to explode as Trump stages distraction games and assaults Iran from his colossal assembly in Diego Garcia. The only good thing about Diego Garcia is that it is so tiny and such a compact target - the pearl harbour II redux. But it sure is looking that Trump wants to call out Russian/Iran solidarity very soon. Prepare the popcorn as the armageddon arsonists get us all born again.
Two off topic comments responding to Lavrov’s off topic remarks on
1. Olympic boxing controversy about the sex of an Algerian woman and a woman from Taiwan who won their weight divisions. This issue has been raised by Lavrov and I think Putin also on several occasions. The issue really seems to bother the Russian leadership. Like most commentators here and other geopolitical blogs, these leaders, along with Trump, do not seem to understand the genetic complexities of sex—it cannot always be readily reduced to x and y. See this relatively non-technical explanation regarding this specific Olympic controversy, for example: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crlr8gp813ko
2. Lavrov above and Putin in recent months have made statements indicating acceptance of Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was stolen [ I opposed both major party candidates in both elections—both are corrupt in more fundamental ways than vote stealing]. I have seen no evidence that votes were stolen in either election in any meaningful way. Ballot stuffing is not credible because of signature checks; computer manipulation remains totally unproven and thus unlikely—extremely remote chance given the size of the effort to find it and the size of the conspiracy necessary to have accomplished it. I am quite aware of actual vote theft in the past. I knew people who claimed to have stuffed ballots in union elections and I know people who saw exchange of money for votes in the case of Chicago’s first Mayor Daley. And Seymour Hersh, in The Dark Side of Camelot details RFK collecting illegal campaign funds in a hotel room prior to the 1960 election. But the charge of millions of false votes cast in 2020 and 2024 seems speculative and evidence free to me.
Since I support Russia’s position on the SMO, it disturbs me that leadership supports such a tenuous claim regarding US elections—it could be seen by some as undermining the truth of Russia’s political claims regarding Ukraine. Is Russia’s leadership playing to Trump’s vanity for a political reason or do they really believe the vote stealing nonsense? [They are certainly justified in denigrating the Dems for Russiagate, however.] As for nature’s diversity regarding sex, I would hope a nation as developed in science as Russia would at least acknowledge reality when deciding how to solve such difficult sociological problems…
Your objections have merit. On the Olympics, IMO the aim was to get some digs in because of the illegal and gross discrimination of Russia and not any other nations involved in war or other such actions, and the gender stuff was there to use. On the election tampering that always happens, Russia should follow its policy and just shut up or at least keep the talk private and out of the media. The ploy is clearly a very cheap way to endear Trump to Russia, which has worked because of Trump’s nature. That I didn’t take those words by Lavrov to task was my choice not to muddy the commentary.
" Ballot stuffing is not credible because of signature checks"
The signature checks were never properly done. This is a documented fact, revealed in open court in a number of jurisdictions. But, the US court system--at both the Federal and State level--is almost unfathomably corrupt, and has been for a long, long, long time. So in the handful of jurisdictions where the judges could not simply squash the election interference cases outright, and were forced to bring them to trial, they simply ignored the evidence and the law, and overruled it. Some districts are so monumentally corrupt--like the Federal District of Southern New York--that it is a badly-kept secret that unless you are a Wall Street Bank, you can forget about getting anything even remotely resembling justice. The one thing the American justice system has been good at is hiding and obfuscating their corruption. However, the abuses have become so staggering and widespread in the last ten years that the word is slowly getting out that the judicial system in America is a monumental fraud, verging on something that would have made Stalin blush with embarrassment.
The short story is that long ago the USA became a fraud upon itself, well before any form of modern communications. The myth of America as the land of freedom arose because life in Europe was so horrible, and freedom in America came at the expense of genocide and slavery—not the usual attributes of a free society. And the exploitation at the root of genocide and slavery continues to this day, although few have any idea that’s what’s being done to them.
" these leaders, along with Trump, do not seem to understand the genetic complexities of sex—it cannot always be readily reduced to x and y"
LOL yes it can and does. A decade of promoting gender dysphoria as natural doesn't change biology.
The champions of buggery that are literally gagging to be anally impregnated and then give birth through their shit chute just don't realise how perverted and mentally ill they actually are.
Well, I understand this is an emotional issue for you. I have no stake in other peoples’ sex practices, but I do believe people are people and all deserve respect, and maybe even sympathy—even you, despite your crudities. Perhaps you never studied biology or learned of the errors that sometimes occur during cell division. The link I provided discusses some of those errors in a non-technical way. At the least you would find that life is more complicated than we might wish…
No it is very simple. There are two sexes, one has the potential to produce small gametes and the other large. There is no intersex in humans.
All this has been used to allow men into women's and girls' sports, changing rooms and protected (under the equality act) spaces. Of course not all are abusers. But some are. That's the point of law. To protect the many from the few.
The ridiculous and unscientific gender ideology was funded by Tories and Republicans for political reasons. ie the present swing right and away from woke. I think it will take reproductive and gay rights and racial tolerance with it.
Everyone—and the exceptions prove the rule—respects and deeply admires Sergei Lavrov. Amidst this turbulent ocean of lies and betrayals, Lavrov has always been and remains a beacon of faith. He will always be remembered as one of the greatest diplomats in history.
Long live Lavrov! Long live Russia!
Odessa free port? Like Trieste? Which has never been a free port in practice, since it's always been under Italian control and thus NATO, which now wants to control and militarize it even more!
In case you want to know more about Trieste, please read the second article in this post: https://geopolitiq.substack.com/p/the-strange-defeat-of-the-west-reality
There's also plenty of recent literature about this topic - see for instance these two articles by Lorenzo Maria Pacini on Strategic Culture:
1) https://strategic-culture.su/news/2024/08/21/what-the-hell-is-happening-in-trieste/
2) https://strategic-culture.su/news/2024/10/21/who-is-afraid-of-trieste/
Thanks for the sources. I don’t know if my skepticism was strong enough in relation to the Kommersant report which is hearsay at best. There’s not even the anonymous official being cited to lend some authenticity. The last longer item was even more speculative with the NY Times being cited along with Tsargrad. I’m not even that imaginative. But the lack of anything from the Kremlin tells me it’s there for a reason. I’m mired in Putin’s appearance at the Movement of the First Congress and Board Meeting.
The UN Secretary General is hopelessly compromised, and it's too bad the Russians don't reveal what it is as it's a deserved humiliation of any empty suit. It's the West's (US) corruption of multilateral organisations, and when the Americans don't get what they want they pick up the ball and leave. Ukraine and now Gaza, an ineffective UN mechanism, so the question is how long for the League of Nations v2.0?
I agree Guterres is a failure, and he’s been outed quite well by Lavrov, but he can’t be impeached and removed. That he was reelected was clearly a mistake. Lavrov also talks about the “privatization” of the UN’s main administrative bodies like WHO and UNESCO and the need for their Western members to be purged. Since the main portion of the UN’s financial support comes from Westen nations, the RoW hasn’t been able to advance its own agenda—Western nations had a 30-40 year head-start before many of the RoW even became UN members, which is half the UN’s existence, and in that time the UN was polluted. Look at the damage USAID has done, which will take decades to repair. There were flaws in the League that were mostly fixed with the UN Charter. I agree with Lavrov that the Charter itself is healthy and modern, but the actions of the west in violation for many decades has made it seem as if it’s unworkable. Yet, the West remains in the UN; asking why is a very good question.
As BRICS and other multilateral organizations grow and gain power, the balance of power within the UN will also change and become closer to what was envisioned. That outcome isn’t one that will be instantly gratified; patience and steadfastness will be required.
It's the US that should be banned from the Olympics.
Thanks, very important interview. Not sure how likely it is to hold up (as in, I've yet to see any hint of it holding up so far) but at least US and Russia showed (1) it's possible to come up with a thorough mechanism by which to try, and (2) showed there are limited but worthwhile objectives, and they can be done in a verifiable way, and sequenced in small steps so that the implementation is built up without relying on promises made by the US side.
It'll be nice to have a demonstration of that, even if it is not respected by Ukraine and breaks down quickly as I think is likely.
Also feel like there must be a lot of side topics not discussed, to do with upcoming US war on Yemen and Iran ...
Respected by Ukraine? Lavrov knows that Z is a puppet and everything comes through Washington. Zelensky just does what he's told. Trump doesn't want peace or he'd stop funding the war and expanding NATO spending.
That's just it, Trump doesn't want peace. He just wants a free hand to do war somewhere else, namely Iran. To do this, his admin is trying to have it both ways, to 'keep pressure on Russia', while having to give substantial concessions too. So that's why it is a halfway deal at best. Zelensky the man is irrelevant, but Ukrainian klepto-fascists as a group, I am confident, will try to squeeze more out of this situation by obstructing whatever Washington and Moscow come up with - knowing Trump needs at least something from Putin's for Iran. I think obstructing here is trivially easy for the Kiev regime, and they have European support for it too (at least for now).
What happens?
Russia recovers its southern territory from the Ukranazi’s including the historical city of Odessa founded by Catherine the Great.
If only it was Russia and China negotiating which parts of America & Canada to divvy up between themselves!
We'd have clean streets, law & order, transport/traffic would move at high speed, energy would be cheap and agriculture and commerce would be flourish. Disputes anywhere in the globe would be resolved. Nazis, Jihadi extremists and other unsavoury elements like paedophiles would all be dumped on a penal colony/island. If they got too rowdy we'd fire an Olly Oreshnik occasionally into proceedings.
Everybody should ask themselves this one question. If you opened your shutters, blinds, curtains, whatever in the morning and you saw a battalion of the following options ( Nazis, HTS, Russian Army ) march down your street toward the City Centre, how many times would you shit in your pants?
We already have our own versions of Nazis and HTS. What would be different are the Russians.
Well I have two spare bedrooms and would be delighted to house several of the Russians.
My time on earth would be limited if the other two showed their dirty faces.
I suggest that the speculation about Odessa is premature and Putin is sowing feints by making mention. After the past decades of Putins leadership, any suggestion that Russia would enable the USA to dump its rump on Odessa and claim it as a key US port would be ridiculous. Sure it may be come along bait for Trump but I cannot imagine the Russian Duma and Army ever tolerating such a betrayal let alone the millions of Russians who have a keen political sophistication. Putin might occasionally be unfathomable and apparently wimpish but he picks his fights carefully with survival paramount.
Regardless the entire war theatre seems about to explode as Trump stages distraction games and assaults Iran from his colossal assembly in Diego Garcia. The only good thing about Diego Garcia is that it is so tiny and such a compact target - the pearl harbour II redux. But it sure is looking that Trump wants to call out Russian/Iran solidarity very soon. Prepare the popcorn as the armageddon arsonists get us all born again.
I can smell a novichok moment coming. The UK will 'rescue' Trump before he goes too far.
Pray that I am mistaken and its the margarita I can can smell.
Two off topic comments responding to Lavrov’s off topic remarks on
1. Olympic boxing controversy about the sex of an Algerian woman and a woman from Taiwan who won their weight divisions. This issue has been raised by Lavrov and I think Putin also on several occasions. The issue really seems to bother the Russian leadership. Like most commentators here and other geopolitical blogs, these leaders, along with Trump, do not seem to understand the genetic complexities of sex—it cannot always be readily reduced to x and y. See this relatively non-technical explanation regarding this specific Olympic controversy, for example: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crlr8gp813ko
2. Lavrov above and Putin in recent months have made statements indicating acceptance of Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was stolen [ I opposed both major party candidates in both elections—both are corrupt in more fundamental ways than vote stealing]. I have seen no evidence that votes were stolen in either election in any meaningful way. Ballot stuffing is not credible because of signature checks; computer manipulation remains totally unproven and thus unlikely—extremely remote chance given the size of the effort to find it and the size of the conspiracy necessary to have accomplished it. I am quite aware of actual vote theft in the past. I knew people who claimed to have stuffed ballots in union elections and I know people who saw exchange of money for votes in the case of Chicago’s first Mayor Daley. And Seymour Hersh, in The Dark Side of Camelot details RFK collecting illegal campaign funds in a hotel room prior to the 1960 election. But the charge of millions of false votes cast in 2020 and 2024 seems speculative and evidence free to me.
Since I support Russia’s position on the SMO, it disturbs me that leadership supports such a tenuous claim regarding US elections—it could be seen by some as undermining the truth of Russia’s political claims regarding Ukraine. Is Russia’s leadership playing to Trump’s vanity for a political reason or do they really believe the vote stealing nonsense? [They are certainly justified in denigrating the Dems for Russiagate, however.] As for nature’s diversity regarding sex, I would hope a nation as developed in science as Russia would at least acknowledge reality when deciding how to solve such difficult sociological problems…
Your objections have merit. On the Olympics, IMO the aim was to get some digs in because of the illegal and gross discrimination of Russia and not any other nations involved in war or other such actions, and the gender stuff was there to use. On the election tampering that always happens, Russia should follow its policy and just shut up or at least keep the talk private and out of the media. The ploy is clearly a very cheap way to endear Trump to Russia, which has worked because of Trump’s nature. That I didn’t take those words by Lavrov to task was my choice not to muddy the commentary.
" Ballot stuffing is not credible because of signature checks"
The signature checks were never properly done. This is a documented fact, revealed in open court in a number of jurisdictions. But, the US court system--at both the Federal and State level--is almost unfathomably corrupt, and has been for a long, long, long time. So in the handful of jurisdictions where the judges could not simply squash the election interference cases outright, and were forced to bring them to trial, they simply ignored the evidence and the law, and overruled it. Some districts are so monumentally corrupt--like the Federal District of Southern New York--that it is a badly-kept secret that unless you are a Wall Street Bank, you can forget about getting anything even remotely resembling justice. The one thing the American justice system has been good at is hiding and obfuscating their corruption. However, the abuses have become so staggering and widespread in the last ten years that the word is slowly getting out that the judicial system in America is a monumental fraud, verging on something that would have made Stalin blush with embarrassment.
The short story is that long ago the USA became a fraud upon itself, well before any form of modern communications. The myth of America as the land of freedom arose because life in Europe was so horrible, and freedom in America came at the expense of genocide and slavery—not the usual attributes of a free society. And the exploitation at the root of genocide and slavery continues to this day, although few have any idea that’s what’s being done to them.
" these leaders, along with Trump, do not seem to understand the genetic complexities of sex—it cannot always be readily reduced to x and y"
LOL yes it can and does. A decade of promoting gender dysphoria as natural doesn't change biology.
The champions of buggery that are literally gagging to be anally impregnated and then give birth through their shit chute just don't realise how perverted and mentally ill they actually are.
Well, I understand this is an emotional issue for you. I have no stake in other peoples’ sex practices, but I do believe people are people and all deserve respect, and maybe even sympathy—even you, despite your crudities. Perhaps you never studied biology or learned of the errors that sometimes occur during cell division. The link I provided discusses some of those errors in a non-technical way. At the least you would find that life is more complicated than we might wish…
No it is very simple. There are two sexes, one has the potential to produce small gametes and the other large. There is no intersex in humans.
All this has been used to allow men into women's and girls' sports, changing rooms and protected (under the equality act) spaces. Of course not all are abusers. But some are. That's the point of law. To protect the many from the few.
The ridiculous and unscientific gender ideology was funded by Tories and Republicans for political reasons. ie the present swing right and away from woke. I think it will take reproductive and gay rights and racial tolerance with it.
As much as you may indulge in it, buggery ain’t sex.