Lavrov on Asia and the West Culture, security and energy

Jan 21

Dynkin invites Viktor Larin's question about scientific, educational and cultural ties with Japan and South Korea. Lavrov welcomes continuing cultural contacts and says culture should be separate from wars and politics, contrasting those ties with cancellations involving Netrebko and Abdrazakov in Italy. He broadens his answer to European security, criticizes European leaders and their proposed Ukraine stabilization force and says Europe seeks to exclude Russia and Belarus. He describes the OSCE as largely obstructed but says it remains useful for presenting Russia's positions; withdrawal would be for the president to decide, and he credits the secretary-general's efforts. On U.S. relations he welcomes dialogue but reports no Anchorage follow-up and warns that U.S. economic pressure and ambitions over Russian oil businesses, Venezuelan oil, Hormuz and a reported Nord Stream acquisition plan could occupy opportunities before promised postwar cooperation. The plan is explicitly reported, not a completed purchase. He favors respectful, incremental cooperation, offers help with Iran and says the Ukraine ball remains in the other side's court. He recalls Putin's offer of one billion in frozen U.S.-held Russian funds for Palestinian reconstruction, while asserting that Putin would not join the Board of Peace and that there has been no response. Brief football and parliamentary-contact examples complete his small-steps argument. His claims about energy control, cooperation, membership and absent responses remain attributed; no transfer, acquisition, withdrawal or peace settlement is announced.

Lavrov recalls Putin offering one billion in Russian funds frozen in the United States for rebuilding Palestinian housing and infrastructure under Trump's Gaza initiative. In June he also portrays Putin as declining Board of Peace membership and says there has been no response. Those are Lavrov's June recollections and status claims; the funding offer is an earlier occurrence and establishes neither a completed transfer nor a precisely dated membership refusal.