Brazil’s welcome of Russian minister prompts US blowback

BRASILIA, Brazil — Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday expressed gratitude to Brazil for its approach in pushing for an end to hostilities in Ukraine — an effort that has irked both Kyiv and the West, and by afternoon prompted an unusually sharp rebuke from the White House. After meeting Brazil’s foreign minister on Monday, Lavrov told reporters in a short press conference that the West has engaged in “a rather tough struggle” to maintain its dominance in world affairs, including economics and geopolitics. One of roughly 50 leaked classified documents on the platform Discord that have been viewed by the AP said that, as of late February, Russia’s foreign affairs ministry supported Lula’s plan to establish a club of supposedly impartial mediators, as it “would reject the West’s ‘aggressor-victim’ paradigm.” The item cited electronic surveillance as the source. In an article published on the website of Russia’s Foreign Ministry, as well as in Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, Lavrov appeared to cast the Latin American countries’ trade relationship — notably that between Russia and Brazil, especially concerning fertilizers — as a backdrop and source of leverage for possible discussions regarding Brazil’s continued refusal to provide weapons to Ukraine, which Moscow would like to ensure. Brazil’s foreign minister told reporters that Russia accounts for one-quarter of the South American nation’s fertilizer imports, and that he and Lavrov discussed measures to guarantee its influx.