MOSCOW, July 20. /TASS/. The prospects for resuming dialogue with European countries as well as the possibility of contacts between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio were the key themes of Monday’s briefing by Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

TASS has compiled the key statements of the Kremlin representative.

President's schedule

- Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Zaporozhye Region Governor Yevgeny Balitsky in the Kremlin today.

Dialogue with Europe

- Germany has not taken any practical steps to resume dialogue with Russia: "We hear a lot of statements about this, and we hear a lot of discussions among European politicians, from Germany too. However, this has not been reflected in the actual policies of these countries."

- Russia remains open to dialogue with European countries: "Russia continues to be open to dialogue, as we weren’t the ones who put our relations on ice."

- Russia has become wiser, and will apply its newfound wisdom in relations with Europe: "Of course, we will always draw on the experience we have gained if and when dialogue resumes."

Contacts with United States

- Contacts between the foreign ministries of Russia and the United States only exist on a technical level: "Of course, there are contacts between the foreign ministries and the diplomatic services, which are rather technical in nature."

- The Kremlin will only welcome contacts between Lavrov and Rubio: "If there is contact at the level of foreign ministers, we will only welcome it."

- Russia hasn’t talked with the US through its Kremlin channel recently: "No, there have been no contacts through our channel in recent days."

Russian chess players

- Russian chess players have achieved splendid results in domestic and international competitions: "Russian chess players continue to compete both domestically and internationally. They demonstrate outstanding results, contributing to the development of the Russian chess school."