News from Russia

German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Frank-Walter Steinmeier will pay a working visit to Moscow on March 23...

Vladimir Putin held a working meeting with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu to address issues of settling the Syrian crisis. The President gave an order to begin withdrawing the main part of Russian troops from the Syrian Arab Republic on March 15.

On March 9, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin by telephone on the initiative of the Ukrainian side.

On March 6, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke over the telephone with US Secretary of State John Kerry at the initiative of the US side.

The Normandy format ministerial meeting has come to an end. Of course, we discussed the implementation of the Minsk Agreements in keeping with the understanding on the sequence of steps that was reached on October 2, 2015, when the four leaders of the Normandy format countries – the presidents of Russia, France and Ukraine and the Federal Chancellor of Germany – met in Paris.

On March 3, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will take part in another meeting of the Normandy Four foreign ministers in Paris.

Russia invariably pays significant attention to its participation in the work of the Conference on Disarmament (CD), considering it as a unique platform for dialogue and negotiations on a broad range of topical issues related to arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation. This consensus-based format gives each Member State the confidence that its voice will be heard and its national security interests will be properly taken into account.

We are holding a traditional meeting today, a big news conference devoted to our performance in 2015. We are prepared to answer your questions about current events over the course of the past year.

On February 29, Sergey Lavrov will visit Algeria. He plans to meet with President of Algeria Abdelaziz Buteflika and Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal and hold talks with the Minister of State and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ramtane Lamamra.

Ahead of the Munich Security Conference, the Prime Minister answered questions from Editor-in-Chief Sven Afhüppe and international correspondent Mathias Bruggmann.