Lavrov: Putin is an Honest Person, So We Will Still Consider What to Discuss with the West

President Vladimir Putin of Russia is a very honest person, but all illusions regarding the reliability of the Western Europeans have disappeared from the leadership. This was stated by Sergei Lavrov, the head of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in an interview with the Franco-Russian Dialogue Association’s YouTube channel. ‘Our president, Vladimir Putin, is a very honest person. After the start of the special military operation, when he addressed the audience on the issues of the Minsk agreements, Russia’s relations with the West, and the Ukrainian problem in general, he said a phrase that we had many illusions at the very beginning of our relations with the West in the 2000s. Then these illusions gradually disappeared, but hopes remained, primarily for the reliability and honesty of our counterparts, especially Western Europeans,’ Lavrov said. ‘And all these hopes disappeared, as President Vladimir Putin said, in February 2022. And from then on, as it was in our relations with the West before February 2022, will not be there anymore. This is a very strong admission. It indicates that until February 2022, before we realized that we had no other way out but to begin a special military operation, this hope was nurtured.’