At an annual conference today, Moscow-based journalist and Sky News correspondent Ivor Bennett asked the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, about how Donald Trump will affect potential peace negotiations.
Lavrov says the Kremlin will study any peace initiative for Ukraine put forward by Washington once the president-elect takes office next Monday.
The Russian diplomat also welcomes comments from an increasing number of world leaders recognising what he terms “the realities on the ground” in Ukraine – suggesting Moscow is in a strong negotiating position.
He says the Kremlin has not received any proposals from Washington thus far, but repeats that Vladimir Putin is ready to meet with Trump once he is back in the Oval Office.
Finishing his answer, the foreign minister says Moscow will wait for a “concrete” peace initiative.
Russia needs to ‘resolve NATO issue once and forever’
Sergei Lavrov has been speaking about allies China and India in the past few minutes, but ater turned back to Ukraine.
On Moscow’s so-called special military operation in Ukraine, he says several issues need addressing.
“We need to resolve the NATO issue – once and forever,” he says.
He also says Vladimir Putin wants to “restore the rights of the Russian people” in the four regions of eastern Ukraine that Moscow has illegally annexed.
In particular, he focuses on the need for the Russian language to be spoken there.
Lavrov takes aim at Merkel
Do major European countries have a role in peace negotiations, or is the US taking the lead?
That was the next question to Sergei Lavrov, put forward by a German reporter.
The Russian foreign minister responds: “I believe that Germany has already played its part, played it well, when they became guarantors… [of] the Minsk agreements,” referring to the series of treaties that ended the 2014 Donbas war in eastern Ukraine.
He then says several key European countries, including Germany and France, went back on their word.
“They simply wanted to win a couple of years in order to better prepare Ukraine for a war.”
He says he particularly blames former chancellor Angela Merkel for this.
“So, with all due respect to the history of the German people, I believe it has already made its contribution.”
‘We’re ready to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine’
Sergei Lavrov interrupts a long speech on the idea of greater Eurasian ties with Russia to return to the prospect of peace in Ukraine.
“We are ready to discuss security guarantees for a country that is called Ukraine,” he says.
He preceded that comment by saying: “First, threats on our Western frontiers have to be eliminated.”
He offers no detail and returns to discussing Eurasia.
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