| Submit your comments on this article |
| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Foreign Policy Observers Are Playing 'Where's Waldo' With Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov |
| 2025-11-08 |
| [Red State] Once upon a time, there was a cadre of Soviet Union specialists, mostly pedigreed through Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, whose sole function in life seemed to be to look at video and images of public events and read boring, brain-bleeding memoranda in Russian and then, sacrifice a black rooster under a full moon, dance around naked for a while, and then proclaim which Soviet leader or functionary was up, which was down, and which was out, sometimes the out meant out of a hotel window. Those guys are retired these days and suffering through the temporary interruption of their SNAP accounts, while others perform the same analysis of Communist China. That's too bad. We could use a handful of them right now. The rumor intelligence network, or RUMINT, is making a strong case that Putin's éminence grise, his factotum, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, is out. No one is claiming the out is permanent, but in Putin's Russia, successful acts are much more rare than hitting a 10.0 score from hostile judges on a dive from a Lavrov hitched himself to Putin's rising star through his role as Permanent Representative to the UN. He was appointed Foreign Minister in 2004 and has been joined at the hip with Putin ever since. This is the story. In the aftermath of the Anchorage summit, Putin felt himself ascendant. He was treated like literal royalty by President Trump, and there was some chatter of a thaw in the relationship. But clearly, the matter was in flux because Trump made noises about transferring Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles to Ukraine. In what might be seen as a foreshadowing of Lavrov's downfall (if the story pans out), Dmitry Medvedev, a man whom Putin uses to send up trial balloons and threaten nuclear holocaust, delivered a predictable diatribe; see Kremlin Mouthpiece Warns US Sending Tomahawk Missiles to Ukraine May End Badly, Especially for Trump. On October 15, President Trump had a phone call with Putin. The upshot of that phone call was shockingly optimistic given the actions by Russia in Ukraine: "President Putin and I will then meet in an agreed-upon location, Budapest, Hungary, to see if we can bring this 'inglorious' War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end." He went on to announce that he would meet with Putin in Budapest, Hungary, to end the war, and the groundwork for that meeting was delegated to Secretary of State Marco Rubio; see Peace President Never Rests: Trump Announces Meeting With Putin to End ’Inglorious’ Ukraine War — RedState. On October 17, Zelensky met President Trump at the White House; President Trump Meets Ukraine's President Zelensky - Topic, Russia — RedState. The optics were excellent, but the inside scoop from that meeting has Trump attempting to browbeat Zelensky into accepting Putin's maximalist demands. The shoe dropped on October 21, when President Trump announced the Budapest summit was off; see Trump Cancels Budapest Summit After Russia Signals It Will Not Budge on Cease Fire Pre-Conditions — RedState. This is where Lavrov comes in. Apparently, the phone call between Rubio and Lavrov didn't go well. In fact, it went spectacularly bad and led the White House to conclude that Trump was being played because Russia had no desire to end the war; see Putin Is Using Muhammad Ali's Tactics When Dealing With Trump's Ukraine Peace Efforts — RedState. |
| Posted by:Frank G |