“Minister No”: Lavrvov embodies Moscow’s iron stance

As Russia’s top diplomat during the invasion of Ukraine, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov embodies the Kremlin’s defiant stance with a combination of toughness and sarcasm.

Although President Vladimir Putin freely directs the country’s foreign policy, Lavrov conveys Moscow’s message with a direct style unusual for a diplomat.

Lavrov, 71, who has been in office for 18 years, has seen relations with the West go from almost cordial to openly hostile, and hit a catastrophic bottom with Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The invasion prompted the European Union (EU) to freeze the assets of both Putin and Lavrov, among others, an unprecedented blow to the pride of the Kremlin.

The only Russian foreign minister to hold the post for the longest was Soviet minister Andrei Gromyko, who served for 28 years. Like Gromyko, who was nicknamed Mr Nyet (Mr No), Lavrov has become a symbol of Moscow’s uncompromising foreign policy towards the West.

He doesn’t beat around the bush when it comes to defending what he sees as Moscow’s interests, and that style must appeal to Russia’s president, known for his harsh rhetoric.

In 2008, Lavrov responded to a rebuke from then-British Foreign Secretary David Miliband with “who (the bloody hell) are you to lecture me?”

Like his boss, Lavrov has channeled the public’s widespread nostalgia for the country’s influence in the Soviet era. He has fueled hostility towards the United States, portrayed as arrogant, conceited, treacherous and determined to dominate the world. He has disparaged Western allies as henchmen obeying Washington’s directives to rein in Russia.

Standing next to British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss after their meeting last month, Lavrov grimly described their talks as “deaf and dumb talk.”

After a long diplomatic career, Lavrov is visibly bored with the daily grind. When he appears before the media he does not bother to hide his irritation at naive or provocative questions and often answers with condescension or outright teasing.

Asked by a CNN reporter on Friday in a video call from the Ukrainian capital if Moscow wanted to topple Ukraine’s government, the aide managing the news conference interrupted and said it was not his turn to ask. The reporter continued, and Levrov interjected angrily. “It’s rude. Now he works in Ukraine. It has become infected with rudeness,” he said.

Lavrov has a particular aversion to photographers and is annoyed by the noise of the cameras.

At a news conference, he muttered a curse into the microphone, apparently angry at the fuss of journalists. The expression became a meme, and a very popular phrase on T-shirts for the patriotic Russian public.

Much speculation has circulated around Lavrov that he was about to retire. Instead, he has become one of the most senior members of Putin’s government and a perennial figure in a changing landscape of foreign foreign ministers.

Before becoming foreign minister, he was Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations for ten years and liked to have informal conversations with journalists, exchanging jokes and news while smoking in the corridors of the United Nations. He writes poetry, sings songs on the guitar with friends and jokes willingly with other diplomats at international events when Russia’s ties with the West were less strained.

But their smiles and friendliness are a thing of the past as Lavrov delivers daily angry tirades against the West over Ukraine, the biggest conflict on the ground Europe has seen since World War II.

He was unable to fly to Geneva for a United Nations conference on Tuesday after European Union members banned Russian planes from their airspace under tough sanctions against Moscow.

Lavrov condemned what he described as a “scandalous” move in a video address to the UN session. “EU countries try to avoid frank face-to-face dialogue or direct contacts designed to identify political solutions to pressing international issues,” he said.

“The West has clearly lost its self-control in fanning anger against Russia and has destroyed its own norms and institutions, including respect for private property,” Lavrov said. “We must put an end to the arrogant Western philosophy of superiority, exclusivity and permissiveness.”

Western diplomats from dozens of countries, however, left the room in Geneva as Lavrov appeared on the big screen to express his outrage at Moscow, amounting to a “nyet” to the minister and to Russian diplomacy.