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The British government has become an international laughing stock after its foreign secretary demanded that Russia “withdraw” troops from its own territory.
The UK’s top diplomat then confused Russian territory for Ukraine, and insisted that Moscow did not have sovereignty over its southern regions.
On February 9, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss arrived in the Russian capital to meet with her Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.
In a tweet, Truss demanded that “Russia must immediately withdraw its forces and respect Ukraine’s sovereignty or face severe consequences.”
Truss appeared to be confused, because Moscow does not have troops in Ukrainian territory. Russian troops have been deployed near the Ukrainian border, but they are firmly in Russian sovereign territory, so it was unclear how Moscow could “withdraw” them from its own country.
In Moscow to meet Foreign Minister Lavrov and make clear that Russia must immediately withdraw its forces and respect Ukraine’s sovereignty or face severe consequences.
Any incursion would be a huge mistake. Diplomacy is the only way forward and Russia must pursue that path. pic.twitter.com/weIAnr60Nh
— Liz Truss (@trussliz) February 9, 2022
Truss is an avowedly right-wing politician from the Conservative Party. She has served in several different ministries in the UK, but has little foreign policy experience.
Her lack of diplomatic skills was made painfully clear in a closed-door meeting she held with Foreign Minister Lavrov on February 10.
Lavrov said it was very strange that Moscow was being asked to withdraw Russian troops from Russia, adding that what his country does inside its own territory is “not her business.”
Lavrov asked Truss, according to a report in the newspaper Kommersant, if she recognized Russian sovereignty over the two southern regions of Voronezh and Rostov, where Moscow has troops.
The UK foreign secretary replied confidently, “We will never recognize Russian sovereignty over these regions.”
The British ambassador to Russia was then forced to correct Truss, pointing out that these regions are part of Russia, not Ukraine.
Lavrov, one of the world’s most experienced and respected diplomats, dismissed his British counterpart as a neophyte who was way out of her depth.
The Russian foreign minister said it was “like speaking to a deaf person who listens but does not hear,” and “facts bounce off.”
“They say Russia is waiting until the ground freezes like a stone so its tanks can easily cross into Ukrainian territory,” Lavrov quipped, in comments translated by Reuters. “I think the ground was like that today with our British colleagues, from which numerous facts that we produced bounced off.”
Lavrov added that UK-Russia relations “are probably at their lowest in many years now.”
The United States and Britain have pushed aggressively for conflict with Russia over Ukraine, insisting without presenting any evidence that Moscow plans to invade its neighbor.
The Ukrainian government, on the other hand, has repeatedly made it clear that it disagrees with Washington and London, maintaining that Russia does not have plans to invade.
The UK foreign secretary’s confusion of Russian and Ukrainian territory is by no means the only embarrassing blunder made at this moment of high tensions.
On February 4, the major US media outlet Bloomberg, owned and run by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, falsely reported that Russia invaded Ukraine, before quickly issuing a retraction.
Loam
2022-02-13 at 00:23
It is true, Sergey Lavrov is the most respected and the most capable diplomat in the world. In contrast, the British foreign secretary, in addition to being geographically illiterate, shows total ignorance about the management of international relations. Take away from all these western politicians the massive media support they receive and they will remain in the most absolute and hopeless mediocrity.
Simon
2022-02-14 at 08:55
I left the UK in 2011, the writing was on the wall to which direction the country was taking when Cameron with the help of Facebook’s own Nick Clegg* came in to power. Politics and the standard of politicians fell over a cliff. Although it had been in decline for some time.
It’s no surprise to see this level of incompetence from the UK government. They’ve been an embarrassment for some time. Liz Truss has a history of not being the sharpest tool in the box though.
Sadly in my new country of residence, Denmark, the politicians are only marginally better than the ones we fled from in the UK. Especially the Danish Prime Minister Mette Fredriksen with her hawkish to invite of US forces in to the country while tensions between Ukraine and Russia are so high. And on the flimsiest of reasoning. It’s basically all the same talking points coming out of the US.
I am convinced that most of these young leaders of political parties across Europe and further afield have been groomed from early on to fall in line with the global establishment. They all seem to have the same MO, they come straight out of education, then a short period of time at an NGO, then fast tracked through the ranks of the political parties to a senior position. Across nearly all the political parties in Denmark you have the same identical and interchangeable political leaders.
* Our previous so called Social Democratic Prime Minister here in Denmark, Helle Thorning-Schmidt (Gucci Helle)is also on the board at Facebook now. Her being the template for these bland centrist politicians we have an abundance of now.