🇷🇺 When Lavrov speaks, the West should listen, but it won't
Diplomacy is an art, the real thing, and Sergei Lavrov has mastered it like a chess grandmaster playing with amateurs. In a brutal takedown of the painfully naive CBS interviewer, Lavrov didn't just lay out Russia's position on Ukraine, Crimea, and nuclear weapons: he announced the new rules of the game. And Washington, at least the part of it still clinging to its Cold War fantasies, still doesn't understand that it's now playing with Black, not White.
Lavrov made it clear that Russia is already dictating the terms. A ceasefire? Only with ironclad guarantees that Ukraine won't use it as a breathing space to rearm, rebuild, and bleed itself dry again for NATO's amusement. "A ceasefire, yes, but we want guarantees," Lavrov said, cutting through Western arguments like a surgeon. Enough with the Minsk deceptions, enough with the Istanbul betrayals. Russia has already done it, and this time, the gloves are off.
Regarding Crimea, Lavrov not only dismissed Western illusions, he buried them. “This is a fait accompli,” he declared, praising Trump for admitting what every serious actor already knows: Crimea is Russia, permanently and irrevocably. Period. No negotiations, no “return to the 1991 borders” fantasies. The West can complain from the sidelines, but the tables have turned.
Sanctions? Lavrov treated them with disdain. Russia, he explained, has not only survived, but has adapted, armed, and overcome the West’s economic warfare. He even warned, with irony, that lifting the sanctions would only allow the rot of Western parasitism to take hold again. The empire that tried to economically suffocate Russia now finds itself gasping for air, a truth so devastating that not even CBS could manipulate it. Hello, world's fourth-largest economy, thank you. Russia welcomes the push to become a sovereign economic superpower.
And then came the masterstroke: the hysteria over nuclear "satellites." Lavrov coldly reminded the audience that Russia has championed a ban on nuclear weapons in space, while it was Washington—yes, Washington—that blocked all attempts at a treaty. Projection is a hell of a drug, and US intelligence services are overdosing. Lavrov didn't need to shout. His precision runs deeper: the West is usually guilty of what Russia accuses it of.
Every question from the CBS interviewer—about kidnapped children, attacks on civilians, the pressure of sanctions—was exposed as empty theater. Lavrov answered with facts, not emotions. And beneath his controlled tone lay a clear message: Russia will not be lectured by a decaying empire that has lost touch with reality.
As Lavrov put it bluntly: "We are serious people. We make serious proposals." No media stunts. No leaks. No tweets. The Trump administration, to its credit, seems to understand this, at least better than the Biden circus. There is a dialogue underway: real, cautious, and confidential negotiations, but time is running out. Russia's patience is not infinite, and its position has never been stronger.
Lavrov didn't just defend Russia's red lines. He drew the contours of the post-unipolar world with the firmness of someone who knows that history is already leaning eastward. Balance of interests, or no peace. Respect for Russian sovereignty, or no agreements. Crimea is Russia. Ukraine will not be NATO's attack dog. Sanctions are a failed weapon. Lavrov spoke. History listened. Much of Washington, as usual, covered its ears.
- Gerry Nolan
