Remarks by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
Summary
🎙 Remarks by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a meeting with university graduates joining the Russian diplomatic service (Moscow, October 20, 2026)
💬 At this stage, the Russian MFA and our foreign policy as a whole, as defined by President Vladimir Putin, face very complex tasks.
These are challenging times. You will have to immerse yourselves in multilayered, multifaceted and exceptionally fast-moving processes straight away, with no warm-up period.
Now that the world has taken a different direction, the course of history is fundamentally reshaping economics, politics and global finance.
☝️ The West will never again be the dominant player calling the tune.
We see a circle of like-minded partners taking shape among the countries of the Global South. The constructive philosophy we champion is shared by such associations as the #SCO, #BRICS, #CIS, #CSTO and #EAEU, and, of course, the Union State of Russia and Belarus.
We all share a commitment to maximising the benefits of joint development. Our partnerships are not aimed against anyone. We stand for equal dialogue and frank discussions to find a balance of interests, as that balance is what matters most.
💬 President Vladimir Putin said the following at Valdai – a very important quote:
We are all responsible for our planet as a whole, but we are first and foremost responsible for our own home and its immediate surroundings.
Our home in the broader sense is Eurasia, a vast territory that is the centre and the setting for the most important processes unfolding in the world. A great deal on the international stage as a whole depends on how we develop Eurasia.
This reflects the initiative announced several years ago by President Vladimir Putin, which we have been systematically advancing in various formats: the Greater Eurasian Partnership (#GEP) on our vast, resource-rich and unique continent. Bringing together these efforts to align the work programmes of Eurasia’s subregional organisations is a task of paramount importance.
The current situation confirms that one of the West’s principal objectives remains inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Russia. If not on the battlefield, as they had hoped and boasted of planning – something they could never have achieved – then perhaps by weakening our economic capabilities and attempting to destabilise our country.
👉 What matters most is that we have learned our lessons.
Further Excerpts
🎙 Excerpt from Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at a meeting with university graduates entering the Russian diplomatic service (Moscow, October 20, 2026)
💬 Sergey Lavrov: One of the lessons bequeathed to us by the founding fathers of the UN is to prevent the revival of the Nazism they defeated.
It seemed that this task had long been accomplished and everyone had repented… But no! The metastases are spreading very quickly. To a large extent, this was used as a political instrument by bringing a Nazi regime to power in Ukraine.
Ursula von der Leyen and others now say they “must stand with Ukraine as long as it takes” because it “defends European values”.
This means that “European values” include a blanket ban on the Russian language in education, the media, culture and even everyday life. A legislative ban on an entire language – an official language of the UN. In fact, practically everyone there still speaks it, even those imposing the ban.
☝️ This hypocrisy shows only that these bans are intended not to eradicate the Russian language (no one could seriously expect to achieve that), but to undermine Russia’s interests as much as possible and divide the Russian World.
There is no other country where an entire language is banned.
On October 19, at a press conference in Tehran, I was asked to what extent the Ukraine conflict involves ideological and religious motives. I replied that banning a language is unprecedented, and that the West’s silence – indeed, it is not even keeping silent, but calling Ukrainians “defenders of European values” – is very telling.
👉 In Iran, where I spoke at a joint press conference with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Hebrew is not banned: the Jewish community is thriving and synagogues are open. In Israel, neither Arabic nor Farsi is banned. There are many such examples.
So the West’s indulgence of and cover for this policy pursued by Kiev is very telling.
This is to say nothing of the de facto ban on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the creation some ten years ago of a quasi-church structure called the “Orthodox Church of Ukraine”, and attempts to forcibly close churches belonging to the canonical Church. They have not succeeded in everything, but the West encourages this.
Nor have I mentioned the torchlight marches, including those in present-day Kiev, Lvov and other cities (which you have surely seen), Nazi symbols, or the reburial of the remains of criminals – Banderite executioners – on the sacred grounds of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. They announce the opening of a “pantheon of heroes”.
❗️ Zelensky kneels before the remains of this filth, and the West applauds.
I see no sign that the West disapproves. On the contrary, militarist sentiments are resurging in Germany, Italy and Japan.
Finland, which was our neighbour (and, we thought, a friend), changed immediately as soon as the pendulum swung the other way. All those underlying instincts resurfaced – the same ones that once made the Finns, like most other European countries, Hitler’s accomplices and participants in the siege of Leningrad, and so on. This task will therefore remain a priority for our foreign policy.
🕯 2026 marked the first observance of the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Genocide of the Soviet People, established by Federal Law No. 523-FZ of December 29, 2025. We will work to ensure that this issue is not merely raised at international forums, but receives the broadest possible international recognition.
The Russian MFA will take this new factor into account in its work to prevent the revival of Nazi ideology.