JOHANNESBURG /South Africa/, August 24. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that at this point, he has stopped paying attention to anything Western leaders say about the need to maintain a dialogue with Russia.

"To tell you the truth, I don't follow any public statements that come out about who is going to do this or that about Russia. If you are interested in something, then, perhaps, elementary decency and the rules of diplomacy require that you express this interest through diplomatic channels. A year ago, [French President Emmanuel] Macron and [German Chancellor Olaf] Scholz said they were continuing the dialogue and would have their say someday. I stopped reading and paying attention to this," Lavrov told the media, while commenting on Macron's statement that he would be ready to talk to the Russian president when "it is useful."

"If you talk about this publicly, it means you are interested in the audience that is listening to you - your voters and your EU partners," Lavrov said. "But the message behind such statements is anyone’s guess."