The recent flurry of major policy statements and interviews by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is covered in an analysis published by RT under the curious byline of “RT Newsroom, a team of multi-lingual journalists.” The article usefully explains that Lavrov and Kremlin special adviser Kirill Dmitriev are not working at cross-purposes, nor do they represent different “factions,” as some Western observers have argued. Rather, there is a “division of labor. One set of officials continues to test transactional engagement with Washington. Another has begun saying openly that it is not possible.”
“On one track is Kirill Dmitriev, the Harvard-educated financier and head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, tasked with maintaining dialogue and exploring large-scale economic deals with the West. On the other is Sergey Lavrov, esteemed diplomat and the longest-serving foreign minister in the world. He is increasingly the man saying publicly what Moscow believes privately: that the US is negotiating in words while escalating in practice. That contrast has come into full view following a series of interviews Lavrov gave respectively to RT, TV BRICS, and in subsequent public remarks.”
Lavrov, they note, still refers to the spirit of the Anchorage, Alaska summit between Putin and Trump, but recently said this has been sabotaged by the Europeans and others. “If you approach it, so to speak, man-to-man, they made an offer, we agreed—the problem should have been resolved. [...] And so, having accepted their proposals, we believed we had fulfilled the task of resolving the Ukrainian issue and could move on to full-scale, broad, mutually beneficial cooperation. But in practice everything looks the opposite.”
In practice, Lavrov said, “The US’s objective is global economic dominance, implemented through a wide range of coercive measures inconsistent with fair competition, including tariffs, sanctions, direct prohibitions, and even restrictions on communication for some partners. We must take all this into account,” Lavrov said.
RT’s evaluation is the following: “Taken together, Lavrov and Dmitriev embody the dual character of Russia’s current foreign policy posture toward the United States. Lavrov’s rhetoric signals a strategic judgment that Washington’s actions have surpassed the limits of cooperation, redefining engagement as pressure rather than partnership. Dmitriev’s activity demonstrates that, even under these conditions, Moscow continues to probe whether narrow, transactional interactions—especially those linked to peace negotiations and economic dialogue—can still yield results.”
