Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is being scapegoated for President Vladimir Putin's failed political and diplomatic maneuvers and has been quietly pushed aside inside the Kremlin as a result, former Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie told Newsmax on Sunday.
"Lavrov is being blamed for Putin's miscalculation when it comes to making a deal and meeting Donald Trump halfway," Wilkie said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America Weekend." "Look, Putin is the one, not Lavrov."
Lavrov, he added, "is a lackey.
"Putin is the one who rejected three offers of a ceasefire that [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy had agreed to with President Trump, and that's when President Trump said enough," said Wilkie.
Wilkie’s remarks come amid recent reports from international media that Lavrov has been absent from key Kremlin sessions and may no longer lead Russia’s delegation at major summits.
The Kremlin has denied any split, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov calling the claims "not corresponding to reality."
Meanwhile, Lavrov has been told that he will not be attending the G20 summit in South Africa or the BRICS meeting, "so he's being pushed aside and given the blame for all of Putin's miscalculations," said Wilkie.
The developments underscore a broader shift in Russia's foreign policy, alienating the West, he added.
"I think we're all amazed at the hypocrisy of some of the Western European leaders, particularly the president of France, who lectures the United States on how to govern the world through the eyes of Paris," Wilkie commented referring to Emmanuel Macron.
He also noted that smaller nations closer to the Russian border are proving far more prepared for defense than some of their larger counterparts.
"Little Lithuania, a country that's less than 5 million people, can put more troops in the field than Germany and Britain combined," Wilkie said.
"These nations have created monstrous social welfare states on the back of the American people," he pointed out. "They have not paid for their own defense. They've allowed Washington to do it, and they've built up these societies that are collapsing around them as we speak."
Wilkie also discussed an arrest warrant issued last week by a Turkish court against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with more than three dozen high-level Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Israel Katz, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, and naval forces Commander David Saar Salama, accusing them of genocide in Gaza.
The move carries political motives from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said Wilkie.
"Erdogan is always a problem," he said. "He's trying to placate the Islamists in his own country."
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