🎙 Remarks and answers to media questions by Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov following the High-Level Week of the 81st Session of the UN General Assembly (New York, September 26, 2026)

Key points:

• Without a doubt, the UN needs to be adapted to the new realities, including through reform of the Security Council by adding representatives from Asia, Africa and Latin America. We cannot envisage any additional seats for Western countries. We cannot allow that, because the West is already overrepresented on the UN Security Council.

• We expect the new Secretary-General to represent the interests of all humanity, not just the “golden billion,” and to meet all the criteria set out in the UN Charter, including impartiality, objectivity and proper performance of the functions of the Organisation’s chief administrative officer.

• I have repeatedly set out the sequence of events in the development of the Ukraine crisis. There is no lack of trust on our part. Moreover, we continued the bilateral talks in Istanbul, and trilateral talks were also held in Abu Dhabi with US participation. None of these rounds of negotiations were terminated by us, but by those who now claim that “the Russians are avoiding contacts and have nothing to say”.

• We believe that the Islamabad Memorandum was, as they say, a fair deal. Since it was signed at the highest level, it was presumably done consciously. So why not return to it?

• As for drafting the Eurasian Charter of Diversity and Multipolarity in the 21st Century, we are not setting any artificial deadlines. At the same time, we certainly would not want this work to drag on, given that our Eurasian continent badly needs a continent-wide framework open to all countries and organisations of the continent without exception and free from any external interference.

•All the damage being inflicted on commercial shipping is the result of Ukrainian terrorist attacks, not only in the Black Sea but also in the Caspian Sea.

• The trend towards outright Nazism is evident not only in Europe’s support for the Kiev regime, but also in what I mentioned in my statement. German chancellor Friedrich Merz has said – more than once, so this was no slip of the tongue – that his goal is to ensure that Germany “once again becomes the leading military power in Europe”. Does he understand the meaning of the words “once again” in that context? These are very dangerous trends, prompting many analysts to speak of attempts to create a “Fourth Reich”.

• We maintain a regular dialogue with the administration of US President Donald Trump in various formats, and that alone is already a sign of normality. If relations are reduced to issuing propaganda statements every morning condemning Russia and demanding that Russia suffer a “strategic defeat,” then that is not diplomacy.

• In today’s world, no country – not even one as powerful as the US – can solve all global problems single-handedly, especially at the expense of others.

👉 I am confident that reality will teach our American partners to start thinking in terms of #Multilateralism. They are not the only economic and military power in the world, nor the only independent actor on the international stage.

• I am frankly tired of discussing this issue [European leaders calling for preparations for war with Russia]. We have stated our position many times, so I have nothing to add. President of Russia Vladimir Putin has recently reaffirmed it in St Petersburg: we are not going to wage war against Europe. The very idea is absurd and nonsensical.

☝️ Yet it is Europe that is preparing for war with us.

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