🎙 Excerpt from Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks to the media following the 23rd meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club (Moscow Region, 29 September 2026)

❓ Question: We hear Russia and the West accuse each other. The West is increasingly accusing Russia of waging hybrid warfare against European countries. You recently accused the West of resorting to brute force. Do you acknowledge that Russia is waging a covert hybrid war against European countries? If so, to what end?

💬 Sergey Lavrov: Are you talking about us destroying drones and missiles that Britain and continental Europe supply to Ukraine, which it then fires at us? Is that what you are talking about?

❓ Question: This may be one example of what I’m talking about.

💬 Sergey Lavrov: If you acknowledge that your weapons are being used to attack us, and we shoot them down, call it whatever you like. I have no doubt, though, that this is a war that Europe is waging against us. We’ve been making this point for a long time now.

❓ Question: What about brute force? You accuse the West of resorting to brute force.

💬 Sergey Lavrov: I do not remember ever using the collocation “brute force.”

❓ Question: You said not long ago that the West resorts to brute force.

💬 Sergey Lavrov: Was what they did in Venezuela soft power or brute force? What they did to the Nord Stream pipelines was that soft power or brute force? Bombing and destroying the Iranian leadership and their families, including children, was that brute force or not?

❓ Question: Does Russia not resort to brute force in Ukraine on a daily basis?

💬 Sergey Lavrov: If you mean destroying the infrastructure that is being used by the Nazi regime, with Western support, to wage war against the Russian Federation, then we do resort to brute force to suppress direct threat.