Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov does not typically receive Western journalists for interviews in Moscow, but he has been known to sit down with American influencers who are well-liked by the Russian government and regularly quoted in Russian propaganda. We have witnessed something similar on Sunday evening, but this time, it was a Hungarian YouTuber who was the "lucky" one. As reported by 444, based on a recording where the channel’s founder and host Tamás Cs. Király is speaking with Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, it was the Hungarian Foreign Minister who offered to help arrange the interview Lavrov.
Szijjártó, whom Lavrov had decorated with Russia's Order of Friendship, is not the only one who approves of the program. Clearly, so do the Russians, especially as it regularly features Georg Spöttle, a self-styled security policy expert who has been wholeheartedly voicing the position of the aggressor Russia in regard to the war in Ukraine. Incidentally, even though – due to his connections with the Russian secret service – the Hungarian counterintelligence considers Spöttle a national security risk, several Hungarian pro-government media outlets have continued to feature him in their programmes.
Lavrov is not the first high-ranking politician to be interviewed by the channel. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has not given an interview to the country's independent press for more than a decade has made an exception for Tamás Cs. Király.
The one-hour-long interview was full of the well-known talking points of Russian propaganda. Lavrov first spoke about the recently postponed Russian-American summit in Budapest, opining that Donald Trump has been under pressure from "the European hawks and Zelensky," even though "the American position coincides with the Russian position. At this point in the interview, neither Lavrov nor the interviewer brought up the fact that the United States had recently imposed additional sanctions on Russia because, in their view, Moscow was not doing enough to pursue peace.
Last Tuesday, the White House confirmed to Telex as well as several leading global news outlets that following the phone call between Marco Rubio and Sergey Lavrov, the two foreign ministers had decided against meeting in person. On October 21st, US president Trump himself said that he did not want an “unnecessary meeting” with Putin. Although Donald Trump himself announced that he did not feel it was time for a meeting in Budapest yet, in this interview Lavrov spoke of the responsibility of Europe and Ukraine. The Russian view of global political events is likely familiar to Hungarians: In his speech on October 23, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that those who are pro-war have been "working to derail" Trump's efforts, as there would otherwise have been peace long ago.
Lavrov also told the interviewer that "Europeans are shaking their fists" and that, in Russia's view, it was Ukraine that violated the 2015 Minsk Agreements and 1994 Budapest Memorandum, and not Russia, which attacked Ukraine in 2014 and 2022. As for Russia's territorial claims (e.g., Donbas, Kherson, Zaporizhia), Lavrov said that these are "historical Russian territories" that belong to them because Zelensky is a Nazi. One of the reasons why the Russian Foreign Minister considers the Ukrainian president a Nazi is "because he banned the use of the Russian language" – although this claim is not true.
Lavrov then went on to talk about the American colonizers, Boris Johnson, who he said is in favor of the war, and Kherson, where, according to him, the liberating Russians were welcomed with great enthusiasm. Lavrov did not mention whether Russia had any interests in the city of Odessa, but he did emphasize that Odessa was "known for its good humor." What he failed to mention, however, was how the locals were living there amid the threat of missile attacks in 2024.
Lastly, the Russian Foreign Minister also noted how much they appreciated Hungary's efforts within the EU towards blocking Ukraine's accession. Lavrov also pointed out that Finland had made a mistake by joining NATO, but did not answer Ultrahang's question about whether they would still consider Ukraine being Nazi if it were not led by Zelensky. The Russian Foreign Minister finally pointed out that Orbán and Putin have similar views about 1956 (the Hungarian uprising against the occupying Soviet forces -ed), because Russian-Soviet history had both good and bad parts. At the end of the program, Ultrahang's interviewer told Lavrov that he would be very welcome in Budapest, because while Lavrov has a sweatshirt with USSR written on it “we have T-shirts featuring the map of Greater Hungary”. Lavrov then indicated that whether or not the visit takes place would depend on the American side.
The interview was also posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry's YouTube page on Sunday, where Lavrov's statements to foreign media are regularly shared, including his interviews with media outlets such as CBS and NBC.
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