U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby delivered an embarrassing rant to reporters on Monday, smearing Brazilian President Lula da Silva as “parroting” Russian and Chinese propaganda by insisting on a peaceful solution to the Ukraine-Russia conflict which takes into consideration both nations’ interests.
“Brazil has substantively and rhetorically approached this issue by suggesting that the United States and Europe are somehow not interested in peace or that we share responsibility for the war. In this case, Brazil is parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda without at all looking at the facts,” Kirby told reporters, according to multiple media. Kirby denounced President Lula da Silva’s message on the war as “deeply problematic.”
In response to Kirby, Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said Monday, “I don’t know how or why they came to that conclusion, but I totally disagree.”
The Brazilian government’s refusal to hold Russia solely responsible for the conflict, or to supply arms to Ukraine, and President Lula’s “affront” of saying the obvious in Beijing and Dubai, that NATO and the West are “encouraging” the war with their endless supply of weapons, were bad enough. But on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was welcomed to Brazil for official talks, just as the self-proclaimed controllers of the world, the G7, were preparing to reassert their claim that Russia is and will remain “isolated” from the world community. So France’s AFP news service reported Kirby’s fit, but added: “Meanwhile, G-7 Foreign Ministers warned Tuesday that any nation helping Russia’s war effort would face ‘severe costs’.”
