FM Sergey Lavrov’s remarks & answers at TerraScientia National Educational Youth Forum

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to questions at 11th Terra Scientia National Educational Youth Forum, Solnechnogorsk, July 28, 2025

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Transcript partially complete and will be fully posted once complete:

Colleagues,

It’s a pleasure to be back at the Terra Scientia forum. I enjoy engaging with young people who are the future of our country, the future that is taking shape, as we speak, on the battlefields of the special military operation, and elsewhere. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with the people who are doing their job there. Not long ago, I presented diplomas to graduates of a career development programme, Urban Infrastructure and Regional Development Management, run by MGIMO. Nineteen participants of the special military operation were among its graduates. I had the chance to talk with them.

I also took part in the events held as part of the Time of Heroes programme initiated by President Vladimir Putin. I can see how well our youth understand the importance of international engagement and the international dimensions of our country’s development in the current era.

Since the Soviet Union went into oblivion, new Russia’s foreign policy has always been based exclusively on its national interests. No lecturing, and no forcing ideologically-driven approaches on our neighbours or partners, either. We operate in strict compliance with our conceptual documents, the Constitution and the Foreign Policy Concept. The primary goal of our foreign policy is to ensure safe conditions for the country’s development and to raise the well-being of our citizens.

Many political scientists, academics, and experts seriously argue that a third world war is not just unavoidable, but is already underway in new forms, beginning with the West’s aggression against Yugoslavia in 1999 followed by aggression against Iraq, the destruction of Libya, and the attack on Syria. All these Middle Eastern countries are now in a state of turmoil. The territorial integrity of Iraq, Syria, and Libya – something the West seems to care about only in the case of Ukraine – was gravely undermined during the Arab Spring in 2011. These countries remain in a pretty bad shape.

Now, the West has turned to a neighbouring region, namely, the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian territories, more broadly. There has been an act of aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In Europe, the Ukraine issue represents the West’s policy of aiming to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia.

They don’t hide the fact that they had been preparing for this for quite some time. With no shame, they are openly saying that the Minsk Agreements, which were designed to resolve all problems, were never meant to be implemented. President Putin, then-Chancellor Angela Merkel, then-French President François Hollande, and then-Ukrainian President Petr Poroshenko put in 17 hours without sleep working on those agreements. But afterwards, those very people who sat at one table with him admitted they never intended to implement anything. They just needed to “put something on paper” to buy Ukraine time for it to prepare for war with Russia, and to flood it with weapons. Those same people are now demanding that we immediately cease fire and leave things the way they are now, just so they can again buy time for their clients in Kiev and pump more weapons into Ukraine. The fact that Europeans genuinely seek to “defeat us” is confirmed daily. New German Chancellor Friedrich Merz recently stated (I’m not sure he understood what he was saying) that Germany must once again become the strongest military power in Europe. It was the strongest military power before World War I and before World War II and started both. Now, he wants Germany to become “Europe’s top military force” again. German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius stated that if necessary, Germans would not hesitate to kill Russian soldiers. European elites are taking this rhetoric as a given. This reflects, above all, the fact that the West cannot accept the fact of becoming just another strong region in a multipolar world. It cannot give up the hegemony it enjoyed for half a millennium. This is visible especially clearly in Europe today which wants to impose its will on everyone and ignore pragmatic concerns.

The other day, President Donald Trump met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Afterwards, she proudly and gleefully announced that they had reached an agreement under which European goods would be exported to the United States with a 15-percent tariff, while US goods would go to Europe duty-free. On top of that, Europe would spend $750 billion on buying American energy, primarily liquefied natural gas and nuclear fuel, completely abandoning Russian energy. Furthermore, as President Trump stated, there would be $600 billion in new investment. No doubt, US energy will be much more expensive than Russian. This approach will further de-industrialise Europe and re-direct investment from Europe to the United States. Sure enough, this decision packs a serious blow especially in terms of energy prices and capital flight affecting European industry and agriculture. But figures like Ursula von der Leyen are flaunting their decision to follow this course. They admit they’ll have to spend more, and that they’ll probably have fewer resources to address social issues, but claim they must defeat Russia.

As Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva recently said, former US President Joe Biden once said in a conversation with him that Russia must be “destroyed.” Not just strategically defeated, but destroyed. It’s about a war of annihilation.

President Trump, though, holds a different view. As he’s repeatedly stated, he is guided by common sense, primarily business and policies that benefit the United States. I’m sure you are following his moves in international trade. The deal with Europe is clearly lopsided, and Europe got the short end of the stick. There’s no need to dive deep into that. President Trump is a pragmatist. He does not want wars. Unlike his predecessor Joe Biden and current European elites (von der Leyen, Starmer, Macron, and their ilk), he is open to dialogue.

Even during the Cold War, dialogue was there and helped opposing camps better understand each other’s intentions, first and foremost, to prevent a major war.

Europe has lost that instinct, and the vaccine against Nazism has worn off.

The same forces that once sought to destroy Russia are now re-emerging in Europe and have chosen Ukraine as a battering ram that they use against us. They welcome everything it is doing.

To be continued…