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Moscow will not have face-to-face contacts with NATO countries in near future — Lavrov

Russia's top diplomat noted that he had no invitations from other countries, from those that are NATO members at the moment and he was not expecting anyone in Moscow either

MOSCOW, June 6. /TASS/. Russian authorities are not planning any face-to-face contacts with their colleagues from NATO countries in the near future, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday at an online press conference on topical issues of the international agenda.

"I cannot guess about other routes, about other EU and NATO countries - we have no plans for communication at the moment. I have no invitations from other countries, from those that are NATO members, at the moment. I am not expecting anyone in Moscow, either," he said.

This was his comment on the decision of some NATO countries not to let his plane into Serbia. In particular, he was answering the question about whether this step means that there may be obstacles on some other routes through the EU and NATO countries.

Speaking about the reasons for the restrictions, the minister said that they had been discussed in the press of Serbia and other Balkan countries the other day. "There was such a version, for example, that Lavrov is now one of the most unwelcome guests in Serbia because he decided to 'get ahead of’ [German Chancellor] Olaf Scholz, who is going to the Balkans just the other day. And Scholz was supposedly very unhappy and even offended that Serbia had decided to take what he thought was an impolite step," he said.

Lavrov added that he leaves it "on the conscience of those analysts who write such things." "I believe it is humiliating not only for the people they describe and whose reactions they are trying to predict. It is humiliating above all for the media themselves, because it is a kind of exercise they use to try to find additional readers or viewers," the minister concluded.

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