Sergey Lavrov: "We Are Always Open to Dialog If It Is Offered Seriously and on Equal Terms"

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke at a session of the Znanie.Pervye Marathon at the World Youth Festival on March 4, which is declared a day of "A World of Opportunity for Everyone" at the WYF.  

The Russian foreign minister said that he had recently invited EU ambassadors to the meeting before the Russian presidential election, but they declined the invitation two days before the meeting.

"We have been accumulating a lot of material on how the EU embassies in Moscow are preparing for our presidential elections, what intervention mechanisms they are preparing, what supporting projects for our non-systemic oppositionists they are creating, and things that the embassy has no right to do. Having gathered that information, we invited all the ambassadors of the European Union a week and a half ago to a meeting with me, where I, as Foreign Minister, just wanted to tell the ambassadors and the heads of diplomatic missions that in good faith we do not advise them to engage in such activities", said Sergey Lavrov.

"And what do you think? Two days before the scheduled meeting we received a note – "We have decided not to attend the meeting". Can you imagine relations with states at the diplomatic level whose ambassadors are afraid to come to a meeting with a minister of the country to which they are accredited? Who ever heard of such a thing?" he told.

According to Sergey Lavrov: "Moscow is always open to dialogue if it is offered seriously and on equal terms" "We don't have any negative feelings towards the American people, I have many very good comrades in the United States," the Russian minister said. "We are always open to dialogue if it is offered seriously and on equal terms", he added.

Also Sergey Lavrov touched upon the topic of sports. He called the activities of the International Olympic Committee and its president, Thomas Bach, a betrayal of all the ideals of Olympism.

"I consider all things happening with the sports movement, which the leaders of the International Olympic Committee and Thomas Bach personally are doing, a betrayal of all the ideals of Olympism," said Sergey Lavrov. He noted the statement of Thomas Bach, who had previously spoken out against full politicisation in sport.

"When he (Bach - ed.) in one of his speeches, reacting to initiatives to allow transgender people to participate in all types of competitions, said: "We can't politicise sport, so we need to create the necessary equal rights for them (transgender people - ed.)"... But when he was told: "OK, you are against politicisation. Will you allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete?" He says: "No, that's different. This is not politicization, they have violated the UN charter," added Sergey Lavrov.

Speaking about the West's attitude towards Russia, Sergey Lavrov said that Ukraine was a purely commercial project of Washington, and European countries were among the main victims of this war of the West against Russia.

"Europe is one of the main victims of this war of the West against Russia. They forced Europe to give all their weapons to Ukraine and immediately started selling them American weapons to replace what was given to Kiev. It's a very large, purely commercial project. As always, the Americans tried to make a profit on aggression, which they started in different parts of the world," said Sergey Lavrov.

As the minister noted, Washington did everything to destroy relations between Moscow and EU countries in the energy sphere by offering European countries expensive liquefied natural gas from the United States instead.

"Our Western, American colleagues have made sure that the whole European-Russian connection through German leadership has broken down. "Everyone knows very well that they were the ones who blew up the Nord Stream pipeline, which supplied gas at very reasonable prices, ensuring the profitability and efficiency of the German economy, its rapid growth," he added.

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The World Youth Festival is taking place at the Sirius Federal Territory from March 1 to 7, 2024, as per the decree issued by Russian President Vladimir Putin aimed at fostering international youth cooperation.

The Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh) is the organizer of the World Youth Festival, with the World Youth Festival Directorate serving as the operator for WYF 2024.