Putin’s right hand is like that

Sergei Viktorovich Lavrov, 71, has been Vladimir Putin’s right-hand man for years as Russia’s foreign minister.

Lavrov became Foreign Minister on February 24, 2004 – 18 years before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

For the past ten years, he has been Russia’s ambassador to the UN, and in 2011 he was appointed Honorary Physician at the University of Tromshell in conjunction with Prime Minister Jonas Kahr Store.

“Lavrov has put the Upper North on the international map through targeted and conscious effort, and the political focus in the North has helped change people’s perception of northern Norway,” the UiT’s justification said.

However, a few days after Russia invaded Ukraine, he was denied the honorary title. Lavrov thus became the first person in Norway to withdraw his honorary doctorate.

In mom’s footsteps

On March 21, Lavrov, 72, has an Armenian father and a Russian mother, and followed in his mother’s footsteps. He worked in the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Trade, while Lavrov studied international relations in addition to multilingualism.

He is described as a close follower of Moscow’s football team Spartak’s hometown and interested in the sport. Hockey is also one of the foreign minister’s major interests.

In 1971, he married Maria Lavrova, and they had a daughter, Ekaterina Lavrova, who studied at Columbia University and lived in the United States for many years.

He should It is also said that there was a mistress, Svetlana Polyakova, from the early 2000s. She is referred to as his second wife and owns expensive homes and cars – even though she is apparently unemployed.

Polina Kovaleva, 26, the daughter of Polyakova and Lavro’s adopted daughter, owns an apartment worth NOK 50 million in Kensington, London, and is one of the Russians affected by the sanctions imposed in connection with the Ukraine war.

His finances were frozen, and Activists protested outside Her luxury apartment was described as “the daughter of a war criminal.”

On social media, Kovaleva kept pictures of himself on big boats, luxury cruises and parties, but his Instagram account was deleted.

Excavation journalist Maria Bevczyk discovered many of Kovaleva’s paintings.

– Are you serious?

Former UN The diplomat was previously known as a very friendly man with a wink – but in the years he was foreign minister, the tone has sharpened.

Like the Russian president, he is often sharp and straightforward, and he is rarely afraid to appear teased.

– Who are you to teach me? He asked When he tried to condemn Lavrov in 2008, the then British Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

In February, Lavrov, while standing next to current British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, described the conversation between them as “a conversation between a deaf and dumb man”.

Also in 2018, then Russian player Mikhail Potskarjov has been indicted Lavrov was outraged when TV 2 reporter Fredrik Græsvik confronted him about why Russia was sending spies to Norway for spying in Norway.

– Are you serious? Your brain is infiltrated by propaganda. We want to know what is happening to our citizen. He was summoned by the Norwegian Parliament. Norwegian hospitality breaks all records, Lavrov replied.

Compared to Hitler

Lavrov’s relationship with the West has become relatively friendly and directly hostile, and on Monday it became clear that the Western media, Facebook and Instagram, are now banned in Russia.

During the four-week war, Lavrov sided with Putin, and the distance between Russia and the West widened. Earlier in March, Lavrov went so far as to compare the United States to Hitler and Napoleon.

– They are trying to impose on us their own vision of the future of Europe. The Russian Foreign Minister said that Napoleon and Hitler aimed to subjugate Europe and now the Americans have brought Europe under control.

With thick and thin putin

On several occasions, Lavrov insisted that the Russian attacks on Ukraine were a “military operation” that they eventually sought to resolve diplomatically in response to a conflict.

The former diplomat has been one of Putin’s closest supporters and has clearly supported the invasion of Ukraine.

“Putin has clearly explained why he chose to carry out special military operations,” he said Sky News journalist Dominic Wagorn To the question of how Ukraine and the rest of the world can believe Russia’s claims.

In the aftermath of the February 24 invasion, the Kremlin has denied that the attacks were an invasion of Ukraine, and the target of civilian operations – despite the fact that thousands were killed.