Sergei Lavrov

CARACAS, Venezuela — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived here on Tuesday to meet with dictator Nicolás Maduro and other members of the Venezuelan socialist regime.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov threatened to abandon a landmark grain deal with Ukraine if obstacles to Moscow’s exports remained.

Communist China is now actively challenging the international world order, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said.

The meeting of G20 foreign ministers hosted by India on Thursday ended in disarray, with the customary joint communique scuttled by “divergences that could not be reconciled,” according to Indian Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar.

China’s state-run Global Times on Wednesday touted top diplomat Wang Yi’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow as an epochal moment in Beijing’s rise to global dominance because the world supposedly realizes that only China can possibly mediate an end to the war in Ukraine.

Wang Yi, a high-ranking member of China’s oppressive Communist government’s Politburo, arrived in Moscow on Tuesday after a week spent touring Europe.

Providing new tanks to Ukraine won’t change the reality on the ground of the current conflict with Russia, according to retired Army Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis, who claimed the United States has “no plan” or strategy and warned of the real-world danger of invoking NATO’s “mutual defense” clause, which would trigger a nuclear war.

Russia President Vladimir Putin will not join a gathering of world leaders from the Group of 20 (G20) nations on the Indonesian resort island of Bali next week, choosing to stay at home instead.

Cargo data cited by The Hindu on Sunday showed Russia has become the top supplier of oil to India, with deliveries accounting for 22 percent of India’s total crude imports, vaulting past Iran with just over 20 percent and Saudi Arabia with 16 percent.

Invoking history ranging from the U.S. war in Iraq in the early 2000s to the 20th-century Cold War to a 19th-century U.S. policy that essentially proclaimed American influence over the Western Hemisphere, Lavrov portrayed the U.S. as a bully that tries to afford itself “the sacred right to act with impunity wherever and wherever they want” and can’t accept a world where others also advance their national interests.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who the administration of leftist President Joe Biden personally sanctioned last year in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, received a visa to enter America for this month’s United Nations General Assembly, Moscow confirmed on Tuesday.

President Zelensky vowed that Ukraine will resist Russia “until the end” without “any concession”, as the nation marks its Independence Day.

A Russian court sentenced American basketball player Brittney Griner to nine and a half years in prison on drug charges Thursday morning, renewing rumors that the Biden administration might trade Russian gun-running supervillain Viktor Bout – and perhaps even other high-value prisoners demanded by Moscow – in exchange for Griner’s freedom.

The Kremlin on Friday jumped less than 24-hours after WNBA star Brittney Griner was hit with a nine-year prison sentence for drug possession to offer Washington immediate prisoner swaps.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced Thursday that Moscow has accredited its first diplomatic representative from the Taliban, even though Russia supposedly regards the regime that violently seized control of Afghanistan last summer as a terrorist organization.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in China on Wednesday for a meeting ostensibly focused on Afghanistan, but touted by Russian media as a landmark in the new axis of global power formed by the two authoritarian nations.

Any political or territorial compromises Kyiv potentially makes with Moscow to negotiate a peace deal between the warring sides will be submitted to the Ukrainian people in a referendum, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine (Suspilne) on Monday.

Russians “will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors and will simply spit them out like a gnat that accidentally flew into their mouths,” said President Putin. “I am convinced that such a natural and necessary self-purification of society will only strengthen our country.”

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin spoke by phone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Tuesday, urging him to bring an end to the armed attacks on Ukraine.

Russia’s envoy to the Iran nuclear talks said on Saturday that Tehran “got much more than it could expect” in the latest iteration of the nuclear deal, expected to be inked by Iran and world powers imminently as talks in Vienna intensify.

Russia has announced plans to host the world’s first “International Anti-Fascist Congress” in order to “unite” the world against Nazism.

The Russian government claimed on Tuesday that several military units have completed “scheduled drills” along the Ukrainian border and will now return to their permanent bases, bringing their armor and artillery with them. 

The Biden administration said Wednesday an additional $200 million in unspecified defensive military aid is on its way to Ukraine as Russia issued demands for sweeping security guarantees in the troubled region.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov demanded “effective financial humanitarian support” from the international community for the brutal Taliban regime in remarks on Wednesday.

Russia considers the island of Taiwan to be a “part of China,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday, adding that Moscow’s foreign policy pivots on this premise.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday celebrated a “constructive” conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, saying Blinken shared his “understanding of the need to overcome the unhealthy situation that developed between Moscow and Washington in previous years.” 

U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry said he was “not confident,” but “hopeful” China would do their part to reduce global carbon emissions.

New Delhi agreed on Tuesday to produce “additional” Russian military equipment in India during a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in New Delhi.

John Kerry, President Joe Biden’s special representative on climate change, met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday for an impromptu meeting on “the climate agenda” in India.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov wore a black mask reading “FCKNG QRNTN” while on a tour of southeastern China’s Lijiang River on Monday.

Russia and China issued a joint statement Tuesday calling for a summit of the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. The statement implied – and the foreign ministers of the two authoritarian regimes clearly stated afterward – that the meeting would be a forum for the Russians and Chinese to air their grievances against U.S foreign policy.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi celebrated the Communist Party’s alleged conclusion of “the days when a few Western powers could wantonly interfere in China’s internal affairs” in a meeting with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Chinese state media outlets – in an interview anticipating his arrival in China on Monday – that “vaccine passports” for those inoculated from Chinese coronavirus may present human rights problems.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced Thursday that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will visit China on Monday for talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who just met with U.S. diplomats in Alaska.

Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who has been receiving treatment and recuperating in Germany since he was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok in August, made good on his promise to return to Russia on Sunday. The Russian government immediately made good on its promise to arrest him.

NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) will be led by Turkey in 2021, the military bloc said on Wednesday. The news came on the same day Turkey confirmed it will snub NATO-ally U.S. and pursue major arms deals with Russia.