# Lavrov Signals Permanent Break With West and Push for BRICS Trade and Payment Systems

*Monday, September 7, 2026 at 12:08 PM UTC — Hamer Intelligence Services Desk*

**Published**: 2026-09-07T12:08:58.216Z (2h ago)
**Category**: geopolitics | **Region**: Global
**Importance**: 7/10
**Sources**: OSINT
**Permalink**: https://hamerintel.com/data/articles/17172.md
**Source**: https://hamerintel.com/summaries

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**Deck**: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told students that Moscow will not return to pre‑2022 relations with the West, criticized European energy policy, denounced U.S. sanctions and highlighted BRICS plans for a grain exchange and independent payment platforms.

Russia’s top diplomat says Moscow has closed the door on returning to pre‑2022 relations with the West and is now focused on building parallel economic and political structures with partners such as the BRICS bloc.

Speaking to students and faculty at Russia’s foreign‑policy university, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said there would never again be relations with Western countries like those that existed before the full‑scale invasion of Ukraine. He accused Western governments of lying to Russia in the past and said their actions since February 2022 had convinced Moscow it was on what he called the only correct path by turning away.

Lavrov framed Europe’s response to the war, particularly on energy, as self‑destructive. He said European governments were effectively harming themselves by cutting purchases of Russian oil and gas and choosing instead to buy American liquefied natural gas at far higher prices. In his account, Europe has accepted economic pain in order to align with U.S. policy.

On sanctions, Lavrov argued that measures imposed during Russia’s campaign in Ukraine under U.S. President Joe Biden were being extended under President Donald Trump, claiming that attempts to seize international businesses of Russian energy groups such as Lukoil and Rosneft were proceeding regardless of which party controlled the White House. He presented this as evidence that the U.S. political system, not just one administration, was committed to limiting Russia’s global role.

Lavrov said Russia was not opposed to the use of the U.S. dollar in principle, but that Washington and its allies had denied Russian access to it by freezing assets and cutting banks from parts of the global financial system. He accused the U.S., Europe, Japan and others of deliberately destroying the post‑Cold War economic model that they themselves had built, arguing that this left Moscow with little choice but to seek alternatives.

Central to that alternative, he said, is an expanded BRICS grouping. Lavrov outlined initiatives he said Russia and its partners were pursuing, including a BRICS grain exchange and independent payment platforms. Such mechanisms are intended to reduce member states’ reliance on Western‑dominated financial infrastructure and commodity markets, insulating them from sanctions and political pressure.

For ordinary Russians, the shift means living in an economy that increasingly orients its trade toward Asia, the Middle East and parts of the Global South rather than Europe and North America. That reorientation can bring new opportunities, but it also involves adjustment costs, from redirecting commodity flows to adapting to partners with different standards and expectations.

For Western governments, Lavrov’s remarks are a reminder that Moscow is treating the rupture of the last two years as a long‑term realignment. If that stance holds, diplomatic efforts built on the idea of returning to earlier patterns once the Ukraine conflict ends may be misreading Russia’s intentions.

The strategic question is whether the alternative structures Lavrov champions can deliver enough trade, investment and financial resilience to offset the loss of European markets and Western capital. A BRICS grain exchange or payment system can, in theory, give members more autonomy, but building trust in those platforms will take time, especially among countries wary of over‑dependence on any single large partner.

The next signals to watch are concrete steps rather than speeches: formal launches of BRICS financial tools, shifts in how Russian commodities are priced and settled, and legal moves by Western states to seize or dispose of frozen Russian assets. Together, those developments will show whether the break Lavrov describes is becoming the organizing principle of Russia’s foreign and economic policy.