MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/. The decision to make public the diplomatic correspondence with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas regarding the possibility of a Normandy Quartet ministerial-level meeting was not in vain, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the television channel RT in an interview devoted to the international agenda.
"I am certain that this step was not in vain. I am not trying to appeal to anyone’s conscience or to make somebody feel ashamed. When it comes to diplomacy, a display of emotion is possibly not the best aide. Some sound cynicism is required here, as a colleague of mine used to say," Lavrov said.
"Now, from the standpoint of sound cynicism, the negotiations in question look quite telling. They totally refute the allegations that had been voiced before we opened the cards. There were claims that Russia impeded the Normandy Quartet’s activities. This is not so," he explained.
Lavrov said Moscow found it very worrisome that Paris and Berlin more often than not preferred to throw their weight behind Kiev, although it "distorts the Minsk agreements and turns them upside down." Whereas in the past the Europeans said the agreements had no alternative and must be complied with by all signatories, now they express unequivocal support for Ukraine’s actions, he remarked.
"In fact, our counterparts have either acknowledged that they are unable to enforce what they coauthored in cooperation with us some time ago, or set course towards the intentional disruption of the Minsk agreements, thus bringing the grist to the Kiev regime’s mill," Lavrov said. He lamented the Western support for the Ukrainian radicals and their accusations against Russia, whose sole aim in providing humanitarian support for the Donbass people and issuing Russian passports to them is "to banish the threat of extinction."
"I have no idea of the further march of events, but we, of course, will keep pressing for the diligent implementation of these agreements. These admit no other interpretation," Lavrov stressed.
On November 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry made public Lavrov’s diplomatic correspondence with his French and German counterparts so as to avoid ambiguities over Moscow’s stance regarding the possibility of a meeting of the Normandy Quartet’s foreign ministers. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova earlier said this correspondence offered a good chance to see that the main thrust of Moscow’s proposals was to make a future Normandy Quartet meeting "meaningful." Also, it demonstrated the inconsistency of Western partners’ allegations that Russia was taking a counterproductive stance.