Does Sergey Lavrov Speak English?

Russian diplomat and politician, Sergey Lavrov, speaks English, Russian, French, Dhivehi, and Sinhala.

Born on 21 March 1950, Lavrov has served as the Foreign Minister of Russia since 2004. As a member of the United Russia party, he was previously the Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations, serving in the role from 1994 to 2004.

On 10 February 2022, Lavrov met with British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss. In the context of tensions between Russia and the West over a build-up of Russian troops near the Russia–Ukraine border talks between the two foreign ministers were described as “difficult”.

Lavrov denied that Russia has any plans to invade Ukraine. He described Western “demands to remove Russian troops from Russian territory” as “regrettable.” Lavrov asked Truss if she recognized Russia’s sovereignty over the Voronezh and Rostov regions, two Russian oblasts (provinces) where Russian troops are deployed. She mistakenly thought Lavrov was referring to Donbas and replied that “​​the U.K. will never recognize Russian sovereignty over these regions.”

On 25 February 2022, the day after Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Lavrov claimed that Putin ordered the invasion to “free Ukrainians from oppression”.

The same day, the US, UK, EU, and Canada announced sanctions against Lavrov as well as Putin. The US added Lavrov to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons’ List.