Russia’s top diplomat held a marathon of New York meetings spanning the West’s self-styled “beautiful garden” and nations across the Global South and East
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul arrived at last-minute talks with Moscow with Berlin’s familiar anti-Russia script firmly in hand, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
Wadephul requested the meeting on the sidelines of the 81st UN General Assembly at short notice, Lavrov said. Moscow squeezed him into the Russian diplomat’s packed Saturday schedule before his address.
Asked about the encounter, Lavrov said he invited Wadephul to explain what had prompted to him to ask for the meeting. It was the first direct bilateral meeting between the Russian and German foreign ministers since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, in which Berlin firmly sided with Kiev.
“He took out his notes and read out a text that completely reproduced what Germany’s leaders publicly and officially say every day,” Lavrov said, saying he had expected something beyond Berlin’s familiar refrain that Russia is the aggressor. The underlying message, as Lavrov described it, was that Wadephul had “deigned” to engage Moscow and Russia should return the favor with concessions on Ukraine and guarantees for Black Sea shipping.
🇩🇪🇷🇺 Russian foreign minister mocks the German foreign minister:
Lavrov says Wadephul came and read from a note the standard talking points Germany has publicly declared for years. “I learned nothing new from this”
Lavrov brushed off both complaints in his signature dry manner. He said Russia had not deliberately targeted commercial vessels, while pointing to documented Ukrainian attacks at sea, and mocked Berlin’s readiness to pin drone incidents on Moscow on a “highly likely” basis.
Lavrov ultimately portrayed the meeting as a missed opportunity for substantive diplomacy.
“I honestly told him that I had thought he had something interesting, something unusual… I got nothing new out of it,” Lavrov said. Instead, he quipped, Berlin “could have simply called.”
An unwelcome report
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova later pointed to another telling detail: some apparently unwelcome reading material waiting for Wadephul at the table.
Placed before the delegations was a report titled “Heirs of Goebbels: Falsification of the Events in Bucha and Bloody Staged Performances of the Kiev Regime.” It lays out Moscow’s case that the 2022 Bucha killings were staged by Kiev and its Western backers. Ukraine and Western governments blame Russian forces for the alleged massacre. Videos circulated online appeared to show Wadephul promptly covering the report with his notebook upon taking his seat and ignoring it.
“Wadephul bashfully covered the report with his notebook and pretended he hadn’t noticed anything,” Zakharova wrote on Telegram, referring to its comparison with Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels. “Everything is perfectly obvious to everyone – the truth hurts.”
Meanwhile, Wadephul emerged from the meeting sticking firmly to Berlin’s established script, saying Germany was ready for dialogue if Moscow “is ready to give up its war against Ukraine.” He added that Europeans were not keen to leave talking to Russia entirely to Washington.
That concern is hardly surprising. Germany is a driving force behind the so-called “coalition of the willing,” which pushes continued support for Kiev and gained prominence as European capitals found themselves increasingly on the sidelines of diplomacy amid direct Russia-US contacts last year. Its members have continued arming Kiev while calling for greater military preparedness against a potential Russian threat – an approach Moscow has repeatedly criticized as hardly conducive to ending the conflict. Lavrov drove the point home at the UNGA, again rejecting claims that Russia plans to attack NATO or EU states and accusing European governments of militarizing for confrontation with Moscow.
Lavrov’s UNGA marathon
Disappointing as Lavrov evidently found his encounter with Wadephul, the German minister was just one stop in his diplomatic marathon spanning the geopolitical spectrum.
Lavrov’s New York interlocutors ranged from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and IAEA chief Rafael Grossi to officials from Serbia, Senegal, India, Uganda, Singapore, Sudan, Kuwait, Uruguay, Morocco, Iraq and Yemen.
Zakharova contrasted the packed schedule with Moscow’s increasingly frosty relations with Western Europe.
“We held dozens of talks at the UN. Heads of government and ministers from countries that the West disdainfully calls the ‘wild jungle,’ supposedly because of their low level of democracy, came to Sergey Lavrov,” she said, referencing former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell’s controversial 2022 metaphor comparing Europe to a “beautiful garden” and much of the rest of the world to a “jungle.”
Many encounters proved considerably warmer than Wadephul’s – and offered opportunities for Lavrov’s trademark dry humor. Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein traded jokes with Lavrov about being in “good shape” and the Russian diplomat’s “beautiful eyes.”
Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis prompted another quip while posing for a photo with Lavrov.
“I hope they don’t fire you for this photo,” Lavrov joked. “I hope so too,” Cassis replied with a smile.
The banter came against a more serious backdrop. Switzerland is due to vote on Sunday about enshrining neutrality in its constitution, while Moscow has accused Bern of abandoning its traditional neutrality by aligning with Western policy on Ukraine.
Still, the contrast was stark: while Wadephul brought what Lavrov derided as Berlin’s same tired script, the rest of his UNGA marathon painted a far warmer picture of Russia’s ever-widening diplomatic engagement.
