Photo: mid.ru
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has negotiated with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian on November 27, TASS reports. The diplomats covered international issues and Russia’s journalists rights protection.
Lavrov visited RT broadcaster office, to Versailles with Le Drian and participated in Trianon dialog forum.
Some Russian journalists were not allowed to a press-conference and Sergey Lavrov had to infringe upon it. The Russian embassy directed the list of the participants in good time but the accreditation was slowed down. As a result some Russian mass media including French RT representatives could not enter the conference.
Only after Lavrov stated that he would not speak to journalists without the admission of the Russian press, the Russian journalists were allowed to come.
During the visit, the Russian Foreign Minister broached several times the problem of media freedom. According to him, Moscow will cover this issue at the OSCE Ministerial Council, which will be held on December 6-7 in Milan.
The provocation of Ukraine in the Kerch Strait, committed on November 25, was also on agenda. On the appeal of the French side to de-escalate the situation, Sergey Lavrov stressed that the conflict was deliberately provoked by Kiev. According to the minister, Russia does not need intermediaries in resolving the situation. But the Western partners of Ukraine should send a clear signal to Kiev about preventing such provocations in the future.
The parties assured each other of the support of the negotiation process on the most controversial issues of international politics. They relate to European stability, the fight against the use of chemical and cyber weapons, as well as the restoration of contacts between Russia and NATO frozen at the initiative of the alliance.
They covered the British project Integrity Initiative, created for informational opposition to Russia. According to Russkiy Mir, hackers from the Anonymous group have published documents confirming that official London is interfering in the internal affairs of European countries and is leading an information war against Russia.
Lavrov noted that the only task of this project is “to demonize the Russian Federation in foreign countries.” Data on the project still needed to be clarified, but Russia was watching over public initiatives by the West that restrict freedom of press, said Sergey Lavrov. He urged to refrain the introduction of political censorship, the compilation of all sorts of lists of journalists and other steps that generate distrust of the press.
French Foreign Minister stressed that it is impossible to discuss major international problems without Russia. The visit of Le Drian to Moscow and St. Petersburg is scheduled for early 2019.
Russkiy Mir
