By EUvsDisinfo
Lavrov’s 2026 presser: a three-hour FIMI offensive against Europe and its leaders
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s annual press conference(opens in a new tab) on 20 January 2026 was not a diplomatic review, but a carefully orchestrated example of foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) directed at Europe, the EU, the Baltic states, Moldova, and key European leaders. Over nearly three hours, Lavrov repeated a familiar set of Kremlin narratives intended to shape perceptions of European politics and security, undermine trust in EU institutions, and recast Russia as a defender of order surrounded by hostile powers.
Making it personal
It only took a few minutes for Lavrov to claim that Europe is unstable and aggressive against Russia. He named several leaders, including Kaja Kallas, Ursula von der Leyen, Friedrich Merz, Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, and Mark Rutte, accusing them of ‘seriously preparing’ for a war with Moscow. The personal targeting of individuals rather than policies is a classic FIMI technique designed to weaken public confidence in democratic decision-making and depict EU leaders as irrational and dangerous.
Kaja Kallas was singled out with particular intensity. Lavrov accused her of supporting unrest in Iran and suggested she had encouraged regime change there, seeking to frame EU foreign policy as destabilising not only in Europe but across the Middle East. Safe to say, no credible evidence supports allegations that European countries are interfering in Iran.
Casting Germany as a returning danger
His rhetoric on Germany was equally striking. In attacking Chancellor Merz for comments on European security, Lavrov invoked the memory of Nazi Germany and implied that current German policymaking has the same ‘arrogant’ attitudes that had led Europe into the catastrophe of World War II.
Germany’s efforts to upgrade its military within the NATO framework are, in fact, a defensive reaction to Russian aggression, not a plot to militarise for offensive action. Lavrov’s attack on Merz was not a historical observation but a deliberate attempt to associate current European defence policies – that react to Russia’s threat – with the darkest chapters of the twentieth century. This deceptive rhetoric also allowed him to claim the moral high ground by casting Europe rather than Russia as the heir to past aggression.
The EU as a hostile force
The EU as an institution was portrayed as weak, coercive, subversive, and hypocritical. The allegations were manifestations of a longstanding Kremlin narrative portraying the EU as a geopolitical bogeyman. Lavrov accused Brussels of manipulating multilateral bodies, especially the OSCE, turning them into instruments used against Russia. This accusation was also a familiar one. Moscow has long made a habit of accusing any organisation that challenges it of being an anti-Russian puppet of the West.
In addition, Lavrov dismissed Europe’s security structures – NATO, the OSCE, and the EU – as discredited and illegitimate, while presenting Russia’s own Eurasian vision as the only stable alternative. The aim was to erode EU credibility and question the foundations of Europe’s post-Cold War security order.
The same old falsehoods about Ukraine
Lavrov repeated the standard Kremlin narrative on Ukraine. He reiterated false claims that the Ukrainian government is a Nazi regime, that the 2014 Revolution of Dignity was a coup, and that the state represses the Russian language, culture and the Orthodox Church. In fact, while Ukrainian is the official state language, no Ukrainian law prohibits or restricts the use of the Russian language in private life. And while Moscow often accuses Ukraine of killing Christians, the Orthodox Church of Russia has embraced the Kremlin’s war, an act denounced by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
Lavrov insisted that Russia had shown consistent goodwill since 2014 and blamed Europe for sabotaging every attempt at a settlement. This inversion of responsibility and reality lies at the centre of Russian FIMI campaigns and is used to justify continued aggression while shifting blame to the EU and its leaders.
Targeting the near-abroad
For their part, the Baltic states were ridiculed as paranoid, anti-Russian and provocative. Lavrov described them as a ‘byword for absurdity’ and accused the Baltics of fuelling tensions in the Suwalki Gap and the Baltic Sea. His remarks sought to delegitimise NATO’s eastern flank and portrayed any deterrence measures as reckless rather than defensive.
Similar themes were applied to Moldova, which Lavrov claimed was being absorbed by the EU, stripped of its identity, and driven into economic collapse. Such narratives are part of a long-standing Kremlin effort to undermine Chisinau’s European path and stir doubt about its sovereignty. See our debunk here.
The coloniser in Ukraine condemns colonialism
Lavrov also relied heavily on anti-colonial language. He cited the example of Greenland to claim that the West maintains a colonial mindset while Russia stands for decolonisation and genuine self-determination. This framing was used to justify Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian territory by portraying it as the outcome of popular will. Such messaging is crafted for broader global audiences where anti-colonial sentiment remains politically powerful.
The disinformation goes on, and on
Across all of these themes, Lavrov merged legal language, selective history, and emotional provocation to create an alternative moral and political reality. His remarks were intended not to inform but to manipulate, projecting Russia as lawful and besieged while depicting Europe as aggressive, unstable, and ideologically extreme.
Viewed through a FIMI lens, the press conference functioned as the opening salvo in a broader disinformation campaign. The misleading narratives deployed will now reappear across Russian state media, diplomatic channels, and proxy outlets. Russia relies not on the shock value of individual statements but on repetition and saturation, gradually blurring distinction between facts and fiction.
Don’t be deceived.
By EUvsDisinfo
