• A crowd laughed at Russia’s top diplomat who said the Ukraine war “was launched against us.” 
• Another audience member at India’s G20 summit shouted “come on!” at Sergey Lavrov at the event. 
• He was answering a question about Russia’s energy strategy moving forward. 

Sergey Lavrov, a top Russian diplomat and close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, at a conference in India Thursday said that the war in Ukraine “was launched against us,” prompting the crowd to erupt in laughter.

Lavrov was a speaker at India’s G20 Summit in New Delhi, leading a session that was part of a “Raisina Dialogue 2023” series. He was in discussion with Sunjoy Joshi, Chairman of the Observer Research Foundation in India, and took questions from the audience. 

One audience member asked Lavrov, “How the war has affected Russia’s strategy on energy, and will it mark a privilege toward Asia? And if it does, how is India going to feature in it?” 

“You know, the war, which we are trying to stop, which was launched against us, using the…” Lavrov began, before being cut off by loud laughter from the crowd. 

“…The Ukrainian people, uh, of course, influenced…” Lavrov tried again, before being cut off by more laughter and a shout of “Come on!” from the crowd. 

He went on to say that the war has influenced the energy policy in Russia and that they “would not rely on any partners” going forward. 

—max seddon (@maxseddon) March 3, 2023