Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed rumors of back-channel talks between Washington and Moscow during a visit to Minsk, yesterday. “We are not holding any backdoor talks with anyone. The West is refusing to organize negotiations on a fair basis, not to mention that a man named Zelenskyy banned the entire Ukrainian leadership from negotiating with the Russian Federation,” he said at a news conference following talks with Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergei Aleinik, reported TASS.
Lavrov noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin, on June 14, had laid out proposals that are “the result of a sober and constructive analysis of the current realities.” But the West gave no substantive response, the minister said.
