Lavrov loses clout but stays loyal to Putin as Kremlin sidelines Foreign Ministry

In a lengthy profile titled ‘Two-headed Lavrov: How Russia’s top diplomat chose Putin and war,’ the outlet said Lavrov’s political influence has declined sharply even as his personal standing with Putin has held. The authors said they worked in the Russian Foreign Ministry press pool until 2022 and based the report on conversations with diplomats from that period as well as later sources.

Since the war began, Russia’s Foreign Ministry has gone from an institution that helped shape policy to what one source described as a service arm of Putin’s administration.

“The role of the Foreign Ministry [after 2022] is nothing. They write various memos, ambassadors write various papers. It’s just that they matter less now. What new can they say compared with what Putin says? Nothing. Even on the negotiating track, the people [representing Russia] have nothing to do with the Foreign Ministry,” a source who knows Lavrov personally told the outlet.

Lavrov remains close to Putin because they share much the same worldview, the report said, citing a source described as an acquaintance of the minister.

“He is, of course, a true Putin loyalist — this is not an act,” the source said. According to that account, Lavrov shares the belief that Russia is surrounded by enemies seeking to pressure it and strip away its former sphere of influence. “It happened gradually, it was not like flipping a switch: one day he was good and the next day he was bad, or vice versa. That’s why he has survived — because he is completely sincere,” the source said.

Important Stories said Lavrov’s views on Ukraine are “identical to Putin’s.” According to a person familiar with his thinking, Lavrov does not see Ukraine as a genuinely independent state, but as “a Russian fiefdom that must be kept.”

The report also said Lavrov has openly used slurs for Ukrainians in off-the-record conversations with journalists.

“In off-the-record conversations with journalists, Lavrov does not hide his contemptuous attitude toward Ukrainians, calling them ‘khokhols’ and ‘ukrops,’” a journalist from the Russian Foreign Ministry press pool told the outlet. The same source said the ministry in 2025 gave journalists cutting boards bearing the inscription, “To chop dill and Brussels sprouts.” Asked about negotiations, Lavrov echoes the Kremlin line: “If it doesn’t work out — we are ready to fight until victory,” the article said.

Although sources described Lavrov’s relationship with Putin as excellent, the report suggests he does not have the freedom once enjoyed by former Kremlin official Dmitry Kozak, who could disagree with Putin and openly oppose the war in Ukraine.

A source familiar with Kozak said that after a Russian Security Council meeting before the full-scale invasion, some participants approached Kozak in the hallway and told him he had been right — but Lavrov was not among them.

“He did not come up. Maybe Lavrov is not a supporter of the war. But he is already part of the security establishment,” the source said.

One diplomat who knows Lavrov said that loyalty is what secured his place at Putin’s side. Lavrov is now in his 23rd year as foreign minister.

“He’s used to it. It’s already a way of life. If you leave the post of minister — you leave to die. At one time, maybe he wanted to leave and enjoy life. But where can he enjoy life now?” a person close to Lavrov said. “Spain won’t work. The U.S. won’t work. England won’t work. Egypt, then? Or at his dacha on Rublyovka? Then why leave the post of minister?”

The report also details how sharply the Foreign Ministry’s political role has eroded during the war.

As one example, the authors pointed to the aftermath of the Kremlin’s decision in February 2022 to recognize the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics.” Even senior Russian diplomats, the report said, did not know whether Moscow meant the territory those proxy entities actually controlled or the full administrative borders of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

Lavrov’s deputy Andrey Rudenko, who oversaw the Ukraine portfolio at the time, initially said Russia meant the territory held by Moscow-backed militants. The Kremlin later clarified that it was referring to the full administrative borders of the two Ukrainian regions.

Important Stories contrasted that confusion with the ministry’s earlier culture. In 2014, the report said, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova could argue angrily with reporters aboard the minister’s plane over the legality of the Crimea annexation “referendum,” then apologize the next day for being too emotional. After Feb. 24, 2022, the outlet said, such scenes became unimaginable.

The outlet also said every journalist in the ministry’s press pool who signed an open anti-war letter was expelled, including reporters from Kommersant, once described as Lavrov’s favorite newspaper. Before the full-scale invasion, even Russian propagandists viewed the ministry as relatively open, with Lavrov often speaking directly to journalists and sharing exclusive details of negotiations.

That changed after 2022.

“After 2022, he rarely says anything the press does not already know,” one pool journalist said. “Instead, he repeats the same jokes over and over.”

One recurring example was former U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. According to the report, Lavrov liked to joke that he would meet neither “Blinken” nor “Blink-Barbie.” One journalist in the press pool said she had heard the line about five times and that everyone was tired of it.

Former Russian diplomat Boris Bondarev, who joined the ministry in 2002, said that before 2022 diplomats could openly discuss Kremlin policy among themselves, criticize Putin’s decisions and speak frankly even in front of intelligence officers often assigned to monitor them.

“After the start of the [full-scale] war, it was as if everyone had been hit over the head with a hammer, and they all immediately went quiet, and everything became somehow uncomfortable,” Bondarev said.

Lavrov’s public remarks have since become so formulaic that the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera refused to publish an interview with him, Important Stories said, because it was packed with propaganda clichés and historically and factually dubious claims.

“Our mutual friends say that even when he is sitting at the table, he broadcasts like a television set,” one source told the outlet. “He came in, delivered a speech, sat there and left.”

The report came shortly after journalists from several outlets published audio recordings that appeared to show close contact between Lavrov and Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó as they tried to drag out talks on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union. According to the report, Szijjártó shared information with Lavrov about new European steps to pressure Russia ahead of Hungary’s April 12 election.