Russia\u2019s top diplomat held a marathon of New York meetings spanning the West\u2019s self-styled \u201cbeautiful garden\u201d and nations across the Global South and East<\/p>\n
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul arrived at last-minute talks with Moscow with Berlin\u2019s familiar anti-Russia script firmly in hand, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
\nWadephul requested the meeting on the sidelines of the 81st UN General Assembly at short notice, Lavrov said. Moscow squeezed him into the Russian diplomat\u2019s packed Saturday schedule before his address.
\nAsked 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.
\n\u201cHe took out his notes and read out a text that completely reproduced what Germany\u2019s leaders publicly and officially say every day,\u201d Lavrov said, saying he had expected something beyond Berlin\u2019s familiar refrain that Russia is the aggressor. The underlying message, as Lavrov described it, was that Wadephul had \u201cdeigned\u201d to engage Moscow and Russia should return the favor with concessions on Ukraine and guarantees for Black Sea shipping.<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddf7\ud83c\uddfa 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. \u201cI learned nothing new from this\u201dFunnily, Lavrov says Wadephul acted in an arrogant way: \u201cNow I\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/H2cgyLoNuI pic.twitter.com\/MmzoBa84ph\u2014 Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) September 27, 2026 <\/p>\n
Wadephul, he said, also confronted him over an August drone incident in Leipzig that Berlin blamed on Russia without producing evidence.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Lavrov warns UN over EU warmongering: As it happened<\/p>\n
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\u2019s readiness to pin drone incidents on Moscow on a \u201chighly likely\u201d basis.
\nLavrov ultimately portrayed the meeting as a missed opportunity for substantive diplomacy.
\n\u201cI honestly told him that I had thought he had something interesting, something unusual… I got nothing new out of it,\u201d Lavrov said. Instead, he quipped, Berlin \u201ccould have simply called.\u201d
\nAn unwelcome report
\nRussian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova later pointed to another telling detail: some apparently unwelcome reading material waiting for Wadephul at the table.
\nPlaced before the delegations was a report titled \u201cHeirs of Goebbels: Falsification of the Events in Bucha and Bloody Staged Performances of the Kiev Regime.\u201d It lays out Moscow\u2019s 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.
\n\u201cWadephul bashfully covered the report with his notebook and pretended he hadn\u2019t noticed anything,\u201d Zakharova wrote on Telegram, referring to its comparison with Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels. \u201cEverything is perfectly obvious to everyone \u2013 the truth hurts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Wadephul emerged from the meeting sticking firmly to Berlin\u2019s established script, saying Germany was ready for dialogue if Moscow \u201cis ready to give up its war against Ukraine.\u201d He added that Europeans were not keen to leave talking to Russia entirely to Washington.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
No pause in Ukraine conflict for peace talks \u2013 Lavrov<\/p>\n
That concern is\u00a0hardly surprising. Germany is a driving force behind the so-called \u201ccoalition of the willing,\u201d 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 \u2013 an approach Moscow has repeatedly criticized as hardly conducive to ending the conflict.\u00a0Lavrov 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.
\nLavrov\u2019s UNGA marathon
\nDisappointing as Lavrov evidently found his encounter with Wadephul, the German minister was just one stop in his diplomatic marathon spanning the geopolitical spectrum.
\nLavrov\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Zakharova contrasted the packed schedule with Moscow\u2019s increasingly frosty relations with Western Europe.
\n\u201cWe held dozens of talks at the UN. Heads of government and ministers from countries that the West disdainfully calls the \u2018wild jungle,\u2019 supposedly because of their low level of democracy, came to Sergey Lavrov,\u201d she said, referencing former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell\u2019s controversial 2022 metaphor comparing Europe to a \u201cbeautiful garden\u201d and much of the rest of the world to a \u201cjungle.\u201d
\nMany encounters proved considerably warmer than Wadephul\u2019s \u2013 and offered opportunities for Lavrov\u2019s trademark dry humor. Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein traded jokes with Lavrov about being in \u201cgood shape\u201d and the Russian diplomat\u2019s \u201cbeautiful eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis prompted another quip while posing for a photo with Lavrov.
\n\u201cI hope they don\u2019t fire you for this photo,\u201d Lavrov joked. \u201cI hope so too,\u201d Cassis replied with a smile.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Why is the Swiss government opposing stricter neutrality rules?<\/p>\n
Still, the contrast was stark: while Wadephul brought what Lavrov derided as Berlin\u2019s same tired script, the rest of his UNGA marathon painted a far warmer picture of Russia\u2019s ever-widening diplomatic engagement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Russia\u2019s top diplomat held a marathon of New York meetings spanning the West\u2019s self-styled \u201cbeautiful garden\u201d and nations across the Global South and East German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul arrived…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t