SKOPJE, December 1. /TASS/. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell fled the OSCE Ministerial Council events like cowards, obviously afraid of an honest discussion of the hard facts, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference following his participation in the OSCE Ministerial Council’s meeting.

"Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova today showed me two different photos from Macedonian newspapers. One was taken in the evening before yesterday, when everyone gathered for dinner and posed for a picture. Now I’ve realized what it was meant for. It was meant to let this newspaper publish this photo and say: 'Everyone has arrived, but Lavrov is not here. Lavrov is in isolation,'" he said. "Well, it was the day before, that get-together: a chat over a glass of good Macedonian wine and a snack. The opening was in the morning. The photo from the ceremony was published by other newspapers. All countries were represented there behind their plaques, including Russia."

"Neither the Ukrainian minister, nor the ministers of Poland and the Baltic States were present at this event, though. Blinken left, as far as I understand. So did Borrel. Why did this happen?" Lavrov said. "They possibly thought that by doing so they would emphasize their intention to isolate Russia. The way I see it, they are cowards, afraid of an honest discussion of the hard facts."

Lavrov believes that the same fear "explains all these twists and turns regarding the non-issuance of visas to our diplomats for UN events in New York and for events in Paris at the sessions of various UNESCO bodies."

"This is elementary cowardice," he stated.

Moscow, Lavrov pointed out, has become convinced over two years of the West's hysterical hybrid war against Russia that the Western countries have no clear and sane arguments. "We presented our arguments yesterday in sufficient detail, and no one objected to us," he said.

Earlier, Zakharova published in her Telegram channel some photos of the front pages of two Macedonian newspapers. One of them showed a picture of the meeting’s participants the day before the official opening of the OSCE Ministerial Council, when Lavrov had not yet flown to Skopje. "But that newspaper lacked the courage to mention this and to expose unscrupulous American manipulations and their propagandistic aim - to demonstrate the anti-Russian fervor. But it had the nerve to publish a headline reading Everyone against Lavrov," Zakharova stressed. "Another Macedonian newspaper published not a staged photo, but a snapshot of the actual opening of the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting. The very same OSCE Ministerial Council meeting from which the NATO leaders literally ran away, while Sergey Lavrov gave them a thrashing."