MOSCOW, September 13 (Itar-Tass) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has published a book titled “Between the Past and Future: Russian Diplomacy in a Changing World”. It’s now available in Russian bookshops. The book is a collection of selected articles and speeches of the Russian foreign minister.
Academician Anatoly Torkunov said in the preface to Lavrov’s book that “the selected materials illustrated a significant stage in the formation of foreign policy pursued by new Russia and the establishment of its foreign policy philosophy on the basis on modern realities and centuries-old traditions of Russian diplomacy.”
"The two Russian presidents supervised and guided that process. That meant not only giving up the ideological prejudices of the past but also putting an end to illusions and uncertainty related to Russia’s place and role in a qualitatively new geopolitical situation and in a new system of international relations,” Torkunov went on to say.
In the first part of the publication the readers will find interesting articles about Russian history of the 20th and early 21st centuries. The narration about models of international relations are softly intertwined with quotations and judgments of prominent poets, writers and philosophers: Anna Akhmatova, Fyodor Dostoyevskiy, Walter Scott, Sergei Solovyov, etc. Lavrov repeats the simple truth that lessons of history should be remembered.
The Russian foreign minister devotes a separate chapter of his book to the lessons of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. In an article titled “One for All” the minister emphasizes that both the Russians and people in foreign countries should remember the truth about the Second World War.
In his speeches, Lavrov mentioned many times that the main task was to build international relations and catch up with the time lost since the end of the “cold war”. He believes that a foreign policy should have many vectors.
"At the present stage the underlying principles of Russian policy remain unchanged. It is pragmatism, renunciation of confrontation but protection of national interests, construction of equal and mutually beneficial relations with all partners,” the Russian foreign minister goes on to say.
"Today, we have a unique opportunity to rebuild the Euro-Atlantic agenda on a collective and democratic basis. The present day is time between the past and the future,” Lavrov writes.
Speaking about prospects of relations between Russia and the West, the minister points to political and humanitarian aspects.
The book contains many photos, including protocol photographs in the minister’s office and photos featuring the heads of states, governments and ministries: Dmitry Medvedev, Vladimir Putin, Barack Obama, George Bush, the prime minister of Malaysia and the heads of the Foreign Ministries of the Arctic states.
There’s also a photo from the Munich ceremony where the Russian and American sides exchanged instruments of ratification of the new Russia-US START treaty. Sergey Lavrov asked journalists to give him several historical photographs as presents shortly after his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Now these photos have become an inseparable part of Russian history.
The book also contains some informal photos of Sergey Lavrov and his friends having a vacation on Lake Baikal or Lavrov meeting schoolchildren.
The 895-page work has been published with a circulation of 5,000 copies. But even now, the strictest of critics believe that the book may become a true guide to the labyrinths of world diplomatic thought.
Sergey Lavrov was born on March 21, 1950. In 1972, he graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). Upon his graduation, Lavrov worked at the Soviet Embassy in Sri Lanka. He started his work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1976. Since 1992 until 2004 Lavrov was deputy foreign minister and director of the department of international organizations and global problems of the Russian Foreign Ministry. In 2004, Lavrov was appointed Russian Foreign Minister.
Sergey Lavrov is a permanent member of the Russian Security Council. He’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.