JOHANNESBURG, Aug 24 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he did not understand what kind of signals French President Emmanuel Macron was sending when he announced his readiness to talk with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin «when it would be useful»: if there is interest, it should be conveyed through diplomatic channels.
Earlier, Macron said in an interview with Le Point magazine that he would talk to Putin when he found it useful.
«If you are interested in something, then, probably, elementary decency and the rules of diplomacy require that you convey your interest through diplomatic channels — whether it is a meeting, a telephone conversation, or something else» , — Lavrov said during a press conference following the BRICS summit.
According to the minister, he stopped paying attention to such statements.
«When they publicly declare how Russia will be returned to the civilized community — a year ago, Macron and (German Chancellor Olaf — ed.) Scholz said that we are continuing the dialogue, we will still have our say. I stopped reading this «, stopped paying attention to it. If you talk about it publicly, it means that you are interested in the audience that listens to you — your voters, your partners in the European Union. But it is not clear what signals are sent by such statements,» he stressed.