GENEVA, March 03, /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier have begun talks in Geneva.

“As a follow-up to the telephone conversation between the president of Russia and the chancellor of Germany, the foreign ministers of Russia and Germany will hold a meeting today in Geneva,” a source in the Russian delegation told ITAR-TASS earlier in the day.

Lavrov is in Geneva to attend a session of the U.N. Human Rights Council.

On March 2, Putin and Merkel had a telephone conversation, during which, in response to the German chancellor’s concern regarding the developments in Crimea and Ukraine as a whole, the Russian president stressed the unrelenting threat of violence by ultra-nationalist forces, endangering the lives and legitimate interests of Russian citizens and the entire Russian-speaking population. It was stressed that the measures being taken by Russia correspond fully to the extraordinary current situation.

Putin and Merkel agreed to continue consultations both in the bilateral format (through the two nations’ Foreign Ministries) and multilaterally to promote the stabilisation of the situation in Ukraine.