TOM EATON: SA can teach Lavrov how to put out all Ukrainian lights
As Russia struggles to sell stalemates as victories, the ANC can advise it on how to reframe failure as ‘renewal’
The arrival in SA of Russia’s foreign minister, fluttering down over Waterkloof airbase on Monday like a grumpy vampire, was denounced by some observers. And yet nobody can deny that when Sergei Lavrov met the ANC it was a meeting of minds, or, in the absence of those, at least of shared urges.
It was tempting, as Lavrov touched down at the terminal of choice of Omar al-Bashir and the Guptas, to hiss and spit; to demand that the state explains why it is hosting someone who has threatened to use nuclear weapons if his government’s campaign of terror doesn’t result in its favour; to insist that Waterkloof be renamed Water-closet to reflect the foul-smelling things that keep coming and going behind closed doors there...
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