MOSCOW, February 10. /TASS/. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has redirected to the Foreign Ministry the question how British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss’ geography blunder at negotiations with her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov might affect progress in the talks.
"We are not in the position to answer this question. It’s the Foreign Ministry’s competence," Peskov said when asked if the chief British diplomat’s poor knowledge of Russian geography might affect the effectiveness of her talks in Moscow.
A source close to the negotiations earlier told TASS that at Thursday’s meeting Lavrov in reply to Truss’ claims Russia should pull its forces, located on Russian territory, away from the border with Ukraine, asked if his British counterpart recognized Russia’s sovereignty over the Voronezh and Rostov regions. Truss responded that Britain would never recognize Moscow’s sovereignty over these territories, the source said.