Lavrov
2025-11-13
Responses by Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, to questions from the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, which the newspaper refused to publish in full without cuts or censorship (Moscow, November 13, 2025)Full text of the interview: shorturl.at/wrN0X
Key points:
• Unlike Westerners who have wiped out entire neighbourhoods, we are sparing people – both civilians and military personnel. Our armed forces act with the utmost responsibility, delivering high-precision strikes exclusively at military targets and associated transport and energy infrastructure.
• The goals of the special military operation were determined by President Putin in 2022. It is not about spheres of influence but about returning Ukraine to a neutral, non-aligning and non-nuclear status, and strict observance of the human rights and all the rights of the Russian and other national minorities – this is how these obligations were stipulated by Ukraine’s Declaration of Independence of 1990 and in its Constitution, and it was precisely in view of these declared obligations that Russia recognised the independence of Ukraine.
We are striving and we will achieve in restoring Ukraine to the healthy, sustainable foundations of its statehood, which implies rejecting the submissive offering of its territory for NATO’s military use, purging the Nazi ideology prohibited by the Nuremberg trials, and restoring full rights to Russians, Hungarians and all other national minorities.• It is indicative that, while dragging the Kiev regime into the EU, the Brussels elites remain silent about the outrageous discrimination of “non-indigenous ethnicities” and praise Zelensky’s junta for defending “European values.” This is just another proof that Nazism is resurging in Europe.
• Most of the European capitals currently make up the core of the so-called “coalition of the willing” whose sole desire is to keep hostilities in Ukraine running for as long as possible. Apparently, they have no other way of distracting their voters from sharply deteriorating domestic socioeconomic problems.
• The confrontation which has arisen from the European elites’ thoughtless and stillborn policy is not Russia’s choice. The present situation does not meet our people’s interests.
• We do not “promote” a multipolar world order as its emergence results from an objective process. Instead of conquest, enslavement, subjugation or exploitation, which was how the colonial powers built their order and went on to bring about capitalism, this process implies cooperation, taking into account each other’s interests, and ensuring the efficient division of labour based on the comparative competitive advantages of the participating countries and integration structures.
• For Russia, there are no unfriendly nations or people, but there are countries with unfriendly governments. And since this is the case for Rome, the relations between Russia and Italy are going through the most serious crisis in post-war history. We were not the ones who got the ball rolling.
• The people of both Russia and Italy stand to benefit from equal and mutually beneficial cooperation between our two countries. If Rome is ready to move towards restoring dialogue based on mutual trust and taking into consideration each other’s interests, it must send us a signal since we are always ready to listen.
• I am proud of my country where I was born and raised, got a decent education, started and continued my diplomatic career. As is well known, Russia is the successor to the USSR, and in general, our country and civilisation dates back a thousand years. The Novgorod Veche emerged long before the West started playing democracy. By the way, I also have a T-shirt with the national coat of arms of the Russian Empire but it does not mean that we want to restore it. One of our greatest assets, of which we are rightly proud, is the continuity of developing and strengthening our state throughout its great history of uniting and consolidating Russian and all other peoples of the country.
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