It's worth recalling his 2015 outburst aimed at Saudi Arabia — Debili, blyat’ (f***ing morons)— but this week he went even further.
"For the first time in its history, Russia is fighting a war without a single ally," Lavrov said on Monday.
“Russia is fighting alone against the entire West. During World War I and World War II, we had allies. Now we have no allies on the battlefield. That’s why we must rely only on ourselves. We cannot afford weakness or complacency,” he declared during a speech at the Territory of Meaning forum, according to The Moscow Times.
Lavrov didn’t stop there. He lashed out at Europe, accusing it of having “become brutal,” and lamented that the United States has lost all “respect” for the Kremlin — something, he claimed, even the Cold War never brought about.
“During the Cold War, dialogue between the USSR and the United States was never broken off. And what’s more — and this is very important — there was mutual respect. That respect is gone now,” Lavrov said.
He also reiterated Moscow’s so-called “legitimate security demands,” which include Ukraine’s permanent exclusion from NATO, a halt to further NATO expansion eastward, and international recognition of "realities on the ground"—code for Russia’s annexation of occupied Ukrainian territories.
But even looking just at the "realities on the ground" brings into focus a larger diplomatic embarrassment. Just last week, a European politician—Serbia's President Aleksandar Vučić—publicly contradicted his own European integration minister, stating that his country would never impose sanctions on Russia, not even under EU pressure.
So, what did he get in return from Lavrov? A diplomatic slap in the face.
That insult pales, however, in comparison to the metaphorical kick delivered to another semi-Asian politician — Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, who, for 31 years, has mastered the art of spinelessness when it comes to Russia's demands for piecemeal chunks of his country’s sovereignty.
After all, with its strategic defeat in Ukraine increasingly evident, Mother Russia will still need to conquer someone to maintain its internal illusion of triumph. Kazakhstan, meanwhile, continues to lean toward China and even the rebellious Azerbaijan. That shift is now becoming visible even on a military level.
Picking a fight with NATO, while still being bogged down in Ukraine, would be reckless even by Kremlin standards.
That’s why, in the not-so-distant future, Lavrov’s remarks may well end up being the preview for Lukashenko’s final public confession: "I had no spine, but I still had no choice."
Because logically—what other outcome could there be?
Jan Krzysztof Michalak in Belarus