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‘Nothing to be ashamed of’: Lavrov on France releasing confidential Macron-Putin talks

The top diplomat reiterated that in Russian practice, there was also a situation when a recording of his talks with French and German colleagues was published

HANOI, July 6. /TASS/. Russia is ready to answer for its stance and always conducts negotiations in such a way so it "has nothing to be ashamed of afterwards," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday, commenting on Paris having made public the confidential talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.

"Essentially, we always hold talks in such a way so that we’ll have nothing to be ashamed of ever. We always say what we think and are ready to be held responsible for our words and clarify our position," he said at a press conference following talks with his Vietnamese counterpart Bui Thanh Son in Hanoi.

"I think that diplomatic ethics, of course, does not provide for such a unilateral leak of a recording," the Russian top diplomat noted.

He reiterated that in Russian practice, there was also a situation when a recording of his talks with French and German colleagues was published. "Back then, we still worked within the framework of the Normandy Four, and within this format we’ve been trying to convince Berlin and Paris for a while that they should make Kiev stop sabotaging the implementation of the Minsk Accords which ultimately had been coordinated with the participation of the Germans and the French and had been approved by the UN Security Council," the Russian top diplomat explained. "Yet, before we published the content of my talks with our French and German colleagues, we warned them three times that if we didn't receive any clear explanations as to why they were rejecting the documents coordinated with their direct participation, we would be forced to make them public. And three times they responded by remaining mum, so there is still a slight difference here," he added.

The France 2 TV channel broadcast a documentary by French director Guy Lagache entitled President, Europe and War (Un President, l'Europe et la guerre) about Macron’s steps on settling the Ukrainian crisis. The film included the footage of a phone conversation between Macron and Putin.

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