He is the number one confidant of Russian President Putin, once nominated by Putin as the next successor, in the 18 years of his reign, his tough style made the United States feel frightened, often scaring the Western countries to nothing to say, but many times for other countries to speak out, he is Russia's most domineering foreign minister Sergei Victorovich Lavrov.
Lavrov's war-bear diplomacy has long been known on the international stage, especially in the face of arrogant Europe and the United States, he has never given a good face. In dealing with the Western media, he never talks about sentiments. At a certain press conference, it was supposed to be the turn of the Chinese reporter to ask questions, but the American reporter asked to cut in the line first, which was directly ridiculed by Lavrov. In an interview, a British reporter interrupted Lavrov's speech, so he asked on the spot, "Is this the way the BBC is doing?" In March 2022, Western journalists asked Lavrov about ukraine, and Lavrov asked, "When hundreds of thousands of civilians died in Iraq and Libya, did you report such a sad story?" When the reporter was too intimidated to speak, he continued to angrily rebuke, "I don't play this language game with you, I just want you to remember that every reporter must have a little conscience." ”
In fact, as early as the beginning of Lavrov's presidency, he showed his tough diplomatic style, from 1999 to 2004, russia was in a trough, so it will not easily use the veto power in the Security Council, but Lavrov cast a key negative vote on the cyprus situation as soon as he took office, which was considered by the outside world at the time to be Russia's move to restore the superpower style, and Lavrov was also called a "Soviet-style diplomat".
In 2000, at a meeting to discuss the situation in the Balkans, Yugoslavia, as the protagonist, was banned from attending, and Lavrov left the table in anger after learning about it, forcibly stopping the unilateral bullying. After the defeat of Georgia in 2008, the United States, which was behind it, wanted to force Russia to withdraw through international pressure. Lavrov put forward three conditions for the withdrawal of troops, saying that one was indispensable, and the United States had to suffer this loss and agreed to Russia's request. In 2018, Ukrainian warships deliberately broke into Russian territory, and Lavrov publicly stated after learning that Russia was not prepared to go to war with Ukraine, but if they dared to provoke again, Russia would fight back. Finally, he left a classic response to the Ukrainian president, "Poroshenko will be hit back by us, and he will not be able to laugh at that time, and I will assure you." The Ukrainian side immediately sought reconciliation, to which Putin once joked at the meeting, "I have to remind Nizhny Lavrov that you are the foreign minister, not the defense minister." For a moment the audience laughed.
In the face of the smear of Western countries and the media, Lavrov can always "accurately snipe", but for friends, he has never skipped a helping hand. In 2011, when civil war broke out in Syria, Lavrov strongly condemned U.S. and NATO interference in the internal affairs of other countries at the Munich Security Conference and called for Syrians to decide their own destiny. At Russia's insistence, the United States and NATO had to abandon large-scale military operations, and the Syrian government had to recover most of the land with less intervention. In 2019, after Venezuela was unjustifiably sanctioned by the United States, in order to prevent it from becoming a second Syria, Lavrov shouted in the air, "I despise you for using the Western Hemisphere as your own backyard, have American politicians lost all sense of shame?" "In 2020, the new crown epidemic ravaged the world, and the United States not only gathered various media to hype up the Chinese virus theory, but also threatened to claim compensation from China. When Lavrov knew about it, he immediately stood up and denounced the United States.
Lavrov's tough character stemmed from the circumstances in which he grew up, and on March 21, 1950, Lavrov was born in Moscow to a family of cadres. His father was from Tbilisi, Georgia, and was Armenian, so Lavrov called himself "my roots are in Georgia, but armenian blood runs through my veins.". Lavrov's mother was Russian and worked for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Trade, and he also took his mother's surname. Lavrov, who was educated in patriotism since childhood, grew up to be admitted to the Moscow University of International Relations, which trains diplomatic talents. During his studies, Lavrov became proficient in several foreign languages, and as soon as he graduated, he was selected by the Sri Lankan Embassy in the Soviet Union to begin his career as a diplomat. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Moscow and the Permanent Representative of the United Nations, Lavrov has made great strides. According to statistics, during his tenure, Russia's support for the United Nations reached an all-time high.
In 2004, Putin took a fancy to Lavrov's toughness and experience, and directly appointed him as foreign minister, officially opening a new stage of Russia's "war bear diplomacy". In addition to directly refuting the arrogant and rude Western media, Lavrov overwhelmingly prefers to use humorous language to disparage each other. In 2018, Trump wanted to show off his newly built missiles, so he shouted to Russia on Twitter, "Our beautiful and clever missiles are coming." In this regard, a reporter asked Lavrov what he thought, and he replied wordlessly, "My understanding is that the president of the United States just tweeted." In 2022, the United States issued sanctions orders everywhere, and when Lavrov heard reporters say that he was also included in the scope of sanctions, Lavrov asked in surprise, "What do you mean?" Don't I deserve to be sanctioned? The reporters in the audience laughed. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has publicly stated, "It takes two people to dance tango, and dancing with Russia has extraordinary significance, but I personally don't want to dance with you Lavrov." Lavrov only calmly replied after listening, "My mother also forbade me to dance tango with men." ”
Toughness and humor coexist, and it is worthy of Putin's great trust. On Lavrov's birthday in 2015, Putin also awarded him the Order of Merit of the Motherland first class. In June 2021, Putin also took the initiative to nominate him as a candidate for the next Russian presidency. However, Lavrov is two years older than Putin, and whether he can successfully run for office and take office is still unknown. Today, the foreign minister is celebrating his 72nd year, but he is still on the diplomatic front lines of Russia. Looking back at the beginning of Lavrov's presidency, all Western countries are eager to look at Russia and are eager to fire at it in the next second, but he has always been in danger, domineering when serious, and humorous. Lavrov has demonstrated his strong diplomatic style on the international political stage and has become a living legend in the halls of the world bureaucracy.