Updated | Russia’s
top diplomat announced that Moscow had spent so much effort on
interfering in foreign elections over the course of 2017 that “there is
not enough time for other tasks.” What might sound as official admission
of some very serious allegations, however, was actually delivered as a
sarcastic take by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the
Kremlin’s soured relationship with the West.
Lavrov spoke to pro-Kremlin network NTV
for an end-of-year talk show special, where the host picked his brain
about Moscow’s foreign policy, the stupidity of other international
leaders and a series of accusations about wrongdoing on the global
arena, which Russia denies vehemently. Among them was a tongue-in-cheek
question about where the Russian government plans to interfere next
after “a tough year” of allegedly meddling with voting in the U.K.,
France and Spain.
Lavrov,
already smirking, pretended to take offense to the question. “You did
not count up all that we have done,” Lavrov said, proceeding to list
elections that took part in other countries this year. “Sweden, Denmark,
Montenegro, Austria, Macedonia,” he said, with the host candidly
joining in to help him. “All in all, we had to work hard, of course,
this is not a simple thing.”
“That
is why we could not manage to get to other matters, which are no less
important, for example the development of cultural ties with Japan,”
Lavrov said, promising the host to fix that with the launch of a joint
cultural festival soon.
“But
so far, toppling the Japanese emperor has not been successful,” Lavrov
added, veering back to sarcasm. The host reminded Lavrov that Emperor
Akihito received permission earlier this month to step down in April
2019, so he is, in fact, departing the throne. Lavrov remained
poker-faced, saying: “We did everything so that this would happen sooner
but he asked for two years.”
Lavrov,
a veteran among Moscow’s diplomats, is known for his strong-worded
brush offs of the many allegations levelled at President Vladimir
Putin’s foreign policy. During the U.S. election campaign last year,
Lavrov responded to leaked comments about grabbing women “by the pussy”
by then-candidate Donald Trump, with crass humor. After a brief
disclaimer about his English, he told journalist Christiane Amanpour
that there were “so many pussies” on both sides of the U.S. election that he did not where to start.
On
his first visit to President Donald Trump, which came a day after
Trump’s controversial firing of FBI Director James Comey, Lavrov taunted
journalists by feigning surprise at the news that Comey had been fired.
The headline on this story was altered to reflect that "hard work" is not a direct quote by Sergey Lavrov.
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