Assessing Lavrov’s visit to Washington
By Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
May 11, 2017
Posted with End Note by Quemado Institute
May 12, 2017
Sergey Lavrov’s trip to Washington confirms progress in reconstructing relations between the US and Russia after the damage done by the Obama administration.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov over the course of his two day visit to Washington gave a lengthy news conference in which he provided some information concerning his talks with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and US President Donald Trump.
Lavrov’s mood at the news conference was upbeat, and this reflects the Russian media’s overall view of the talks. There is no euphoria and Lavrov himself said that the task of repairing US-Russian relations is a huge one. However he placed the blame for their present wretched state firmly on the previous Obama administration.
Lavrov: “We discussed the state of our bilateral relations, which is not encouraging. We are well aware why relations are where they are now. Unfortunately, previous US administration did everything to undermine the foundations of our relations. Now, we have to work almost from the ground up. We perfectly understand that Russian and US citizens want to live in peace and be able to interact normally. I think that the politicians should make sure that all artificial obstacles that lie in our way should be removed.”
In this respect Lavrov made a pointed contrast in the differing personalities of the foreign teams of the Trump and Obama administrations.
Lavrov: “The dialogue between Russia and the US is now free from the ideology that characterised it under the Barack Obama Administration. US President Donald Trump, his Administration, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson are the kind of people who want to maintain a dialogue not as a means of demonstrating what they can achieve in the area of ideological preferences, but rather as a means of solving particular issues which have great bearing on the nation’s progress, peoples’ well-being and settling conflicts in different areas.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov leaves following a meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC, May 10, 2017. (–Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
The key difference is that Trump and Tillerson are former businessmen, whereas Obama’s team was made up heavily of lawyers and academics (Obama of course was both). Unsurprisingly the lawyers and academics are far more ideological than the business people. There is no doubt which of the two Lavrov prefers.
Lavrov: “It is always better for relations when people do business rather than try to promote their ideological preferences or engage in propaganda. This forms the basis for our expectations.”
Lavrov admitted that the actual results of the meeting were modest. Given the early stage of the dialogue between Russia and the Trump administration, it could not be otherwise.
However two interesting facts came out of Lavrov’s visit.
The first is that the concept of de-escalation zones in Syria stems from an idea Tillerson took with him when he came to Moscow in April. Lavrov was quite clear about this.
Lavrov: “As to Syria, we first of all focused on the ideas that had been discussed during Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit to Moscow when he shared his thoughts regarding de-escalation and safety. This was the initiative US President Donald Trump mentioned during his telephone conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Secretary of State Tillerson later presented it in more detail in Moscow. The initiative is now being materialised in agreements concluded in Astana, where four de-escalation zones were proposed, including in the south, since the USA is particularly interested in stabilising the situation on Syria’s borders with Jordan and Israel. We are ready to cooperate on the issue. . . .”
Sergey Lavrov, Rex Tillerson (–Yahoo News)
Question: “You have mentioned Russia’s interest in US involvement in the creation of de-escalation zones in Syria. Can you provide more details on this? Did President Trump or Secretary Tillerson say that the United States would cooperate with Russia, one way or another, to create these zones?”
Lavrov: “To begin with, the idea was initiated by US officials – President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. We used the Astana venue to promote its practical implementation. We will welcome any US contribution. This issue must be entrusted to those who are dealing with the situation on the ground professionally, and who have the information. We can facilitate this process both in Astana and in Geneva. We have reached an agreement that we, as active participants in the common efforts towards a Syrian settlement, should maintain these contacts with the other key players, primarily regional countries.”
In other words at the very time that Britain’s clownish Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was trying to mobilize the G7 to threaten Russia with sanctions and was calling off his visit to Moscow supposedly in order to make it possible for Tillerson to present to the Russians with an ultimatum demanding they agree to get President Assad to go and commit to pulling their troops out of Syria, Tillerson was actually going to Moscow with a completely different proposal to de-escalate the conflict there.
As to the fate of President Assad, Lavrov made it perfectly clear that the Russian position in relation to him is unchanged.
Asma and Bashar al-Assad (–TheWeek.co.uk)
Lavrov: “Someone asked me about Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In Iraq and Libya, the international community did its utmost to overthrow Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi. We can see what this has resulted in. As regards the settlement of the Syrian crisis, let us draw conclusions from our past mistakes and opt not for replacing the leader but for rooting out the evil of terrorism. President Donald Trump has reaffirmed today that the main goal for the United States in Syria is to defeat terrorism. We fully agree on this.”
As for Russia quitting Syria, Lavrov was equally clear and rather crisper:
Lavrov: “We don’t have an exit strategy. All of us must fulfil our agreements, as UN Security Council resolutions say. Agreements must be honoured and terrorism must be rooted out in Syria, which must not become a seat of extremism and instability as it happened in Iraq and Libya.”
Indeed with hindsight the negotiations between Tillerson and the Russians both in Moscow and Washington have gone so completely differently from what Boris Johnson expected that the unavoidable conclusion has to be that Tillerson decided it would be wiser not to take Boris Johnson into his confidence. There can be no more withering testimony to the low regard in which Boris Johnson is held than that.
In any event it is now clear that for the first time since the start of the Syrian crisis the US and Russia are genuinely starting to coordinate their positions in Syria, though it is far too early to say that they are actually working together.
The difference between the negotiations the Russians are having with Tillerson and the abortive negotiations they had previously with Tillerson’s predecessor Obama’s Secretary of State John Kerry, is that Tillerson unlike Kerry seems to have the President’s unequivocal support backing. Whether this will be enough to lead to a peace settlement in Syria remains to be seen.
The other interesting fact that came out of Lavrov’s visit is that the Russians seem to have genuine hopes of regaining possession of the diplomatic premises the Obama administration seized in its last days under the pretext of the Russiagate scandal. This is what Lavrov had to say about that.
Lavrov: “Sanctions are a unilateral action against us, and so resolving that is not our problem. The issue of state property holds a special place in our talks. Property rights are affirmed by legal documents issued in the USA. The Obama Administration in its last days in power resorted to petty actions against both our property and our diplomats who were ordered to leave the United States within twenty-four hours. Everyone, in particular the Trump Administration, is aware that those actions were illegal. When those decisions were announced, the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin said that we are completely entitled to respond reciprocally. The US side knows what that would look like. Yet we are not going to follow those who are trying to destroy our relations. Our US colleagues know about our stance. I hope we will be able to resolve the situation without our relations deteriorating.”
The Russians must know that at the present time, with the Russiagate scandal still on fire, it is politically impossible for the Trump administration to return this property irrespective of whether or not its seizure by the Obama administration was illegal. It is difficult to avoid the impression that the Russians are bringing this issue up in order to emphasize the utter falsity of the claims of interference in the US election which have been made against them, and as a marker that they will want this property returned when the falsity of these charges is finally proved.
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End Note By Karl Pomeroy
Quemado Institute
May 12, 2017
President Donald Trump, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Washington, May 10, 2017
I am holding out faith that Trump is on the right track regarding the foreign policy goals of friendship with Russia and U.S. non-intervention in foreign wars. Alexander Mercouris gets the right message from Lavrov: Yes, we are on track for good relations with Russia, although it may take time.
In response to an editorial by rather discouraged one-time Trump supporter Paul Craig Roberts [See Are You Ready to Die? by Paul Craig Roberts, May 11, 2017], in which the distinguished author claims Trump has been “castrated” by the Military Industrial Complex and that America will soon be wiped out by nuclear war with Russia, I sent the following email reply:
Hello Paul Craig Roberts,
Regarding your article [Are You Ready to Die?] about Russia’s Viktor Poznihir warning of a planned US nuclear first strike, the article’s link to Fort Russ says, “Representatives of the Russian Armed Forces have stated that the US is creating a military infrastructure near Russia’s borders for the application of a sudden nuclear strike. This statement was made on April 26, the first Deputy Chief of the Main Operations Directorate, Viktor Poznihir, at the Moscow international security conference of the Russian Armed Forces.”
[About Viktor Poznihir’s statement meaning nuclear war with Russia is imminent:] Perhaps it’s just in the line of duty for an official in Poznihir’s position to issue dire warnings to make sure the Russian government is prepared. Our own military officials also issue absurdly exaggerated warnings about the threat of Russia. Maybe they think that’s their job.
The important thing is that Putin and Trump do not believe it. I certainly don’t, and I don’t think they do either. It’s as ridiculous to imagine the US attacking Russia with nuclear weapons as it is to imagine Russia attacking the US.
There has been tremendous progress already from the meetings between Tillerson, Lavrov and Putin in Moscow and between Lavrov, Tillerson and Trump in Washington. All four of these men are reasonable, pragmatic, capable and peace-loving.
Be patient with Trump. He’s dealing with hellaceous forces left over from the Obama and Bush administrations, not to mention the New World Order crowd, many of whom are European. It may take time to turn US policy around. After all, it took Putin years to rid the Kremlin of corruption, and his task is far from done.
This of course does not mean we should not be concerned. We need to put as much pressure as possible on our government to stop U.S. aggression and to establish a partnership with Russia.
Will the central bankers allow this? That is the big unknown.
Karl Pomeroy
Quemado Institute 
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