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Top diplomat insists peace cannot be achieved without ‘taking Russian interests into account’
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The Kremlin on Monday hit out at long-running reports of a rift between Vladimir Putin and his veteran foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.
It said that Lavrov, 75, was actively working as Russia’s foreign minister and suggested that people ignore Western media speculation that he may have fallen out of favour with the president.
Lavrov was absent from a key meeting last week that he would typically attend, and Putin chose someone else to attend a G20 summit in South Africa later this month, a role that Lavrov has filled in the past.
Speculation swirled among Russia-critical outlets that Lavrov had been sidelined over the collapse of a proposed summit between Putin and US president Donald Trump in Budapest.
Lavrov said on Sunday that he was keen to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to discuss the mending of bilateral ties, while repeating that peace could not be achieved without “taking Russian interests into account”.
The Kremlin said on Monday it was “actively preparing” for President Vladimir Putin to visit India before the end of the year and hoped it would be a substantive trip.
Police in St. Petersburg have detained Diana Loginova, a teenage street musician already jailed twice for short stints after performing anti-Kremlin songs, as she left prison, state media and her supporters said on Monday.
Loginova, 18, a vocalist in the Stoptime group, was first arrested with other band members last month and jailed for 13 days for a public order offence after her performance of a banned track, the “Swan Lake Cooperative”, by exiled anti-Kremlin Russian rapper Noize MC, went viral on social media.
The Swan Lake track got her into trouble because the famous ballet by Piotr Tchaikovsky is seen as a symbol of political change by some in Russia who remember it was shown on state TV after the death of Soviet leaders and during a 1991 coup against Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet president.
The Kremlin said on Monday it wanted the Ukraine war to end as soon as possible but that the situation was stalled.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was responding to remarks on Friday by U.S. President Donald Trump, who spoke about ending the war in the “not-too-distant future”.
The Kremlin said on Monday that Sergei Lavrov was working actively as Russia’s foreign minister and suggested that people ignore Western media speculation that he may have fallen out of favour with President Vladimir Putin.
Lavrov, 75, a veteran Soviet-era diplomat known for his robust negotiating style, was absent from a big Kremlin meeting last week that he would typically attend, and Putin chose someone else to attend a G20 summit in South Africa later this month, a role that Lavrov has filled in the past.
Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia could open a second front in Europe before ending the war in Ukriane.
Asked by The Guardian whether Russia could attack somewhere else in Europe, the Ukrainian president said: “I believe so. He can do that.
“We must forget about the general European scepticism that Putin first wants to occupy Ukraine and then may go somewhere else. He can do both at the same time.”
The president of Kazakhstan is expected to visit Russia this week to discuss bilateral relations, the Kremlin press service reported today.
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev will be in Russia on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the strategic partnership with Russia, “as well as key topics on the regional and global agenda”.
Trade between Russia and Kazakhstan has increased since the invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s anti-corruption bureau said on Monday that it was conducting a large-scale operation to uncover corruption in the country’s energy sector.
“The activities of a high-level criminal organisation have been documented,” the bureau said about the investigation which involves 1,000 hours of audio recordings and took 15 months of work.
“Its members have built a large-scale corruption scheme to influence strategic enterprises in the public sector, in particular JSC ‘Energoatom’,” according to the post on the Telegram messaging app.
Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday urged European strength against Russian belligerence in a post on X.
The Ukrainian president wrote that European assume that any response to Russia will be an “escalation”.
“I believe the opposite,” he said. “Russia does not like weakness. Any intellectual responses – precisely the kind Europe finds – read as weakness to Russia.”
Zelensky urged that “weakness does not produce dialogue with Russia” as questions linger over how to bring Moscow to the negotiating table.
“To the Russians, it is simply weakness – and that means they can impose their narratives.”
The UK is sending military support, including RAF specialists, to Belgium after suspected Russian drone incursions on its airspace, the new chief of Britain’s armed forces has announced.
In a decision made alongside defence secretary John Healey, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, the chief of defence staff, said the personnel and equipment are now on the way after his Belgian counterpart asked for help earlier this week.
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Nighttime Ukrainian strikes disrupted power and heating to two major Russian cities near the Ukrainian border, local Russian officials reported Sunday.
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