US deception, future of Ukraine conflict, and no business as usual with West: key points from Lavrov’s big Q&A

Washington ruined relations with Moscow in its push to dominate in Europe, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. Now, even the written commitments of the US and its allies cannot be trusted, he added.

The senior Russian diplomat spoke to journalists on Wednesday about Russian foreign policy, the possible resolution of the crisis in Ukraine, and opposition to what his nation perceives as a colonialist approach by the US to world affairs.

Biden asked for meeting of top spies

The November meeting between the heads of the CIA and the SVR, two prominent foreign intelligence agencies in the US and Russia respectively, happened at the request of US President Joe Biden, Lavrov revealed. The US leader asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for the meeting, he said.

CIA Director William Burns and SVR head Sergey Naryshkin met in Türkiye, but the US official didn’t say anything beyond Washington’s public stance, as is typical for “sporadic” US-Russian contacts, Lavrov remarked. Nevertheless, it had some value.

It is the US whose policies have ruined bilateral relations with Russia, and it’s up to Washington to fix them, the diplomat added. “We will not be running after them saying ‘Let’s be friends again,’” he said.