Icon: enlarge
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov: No meeting with Maas in Berlin
Photo: - / dpa
The Russian Foreign Minister Sergej Lavrov has declined an invitation to bilateral talks in Berlin with Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.
The meeting was originally planned for an event on German-Russian university cooperation and science, announced the Foreign Ministry in Moscow.
This is under the patronage of Lavrov and Maas.
At the beginning of September, however, the German side announced changes to the schedule of Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, which is why he will not participate in the ceremony.
The Russian Foreign Ministry criticized that there were only one and a half hours available for bilateral talks.
The "original and main purpose" of Lavrov's trip to the German capital has proven to be "irrelevant".
The proposed format of the bilateral talks has been "severely restricted".
In the program overview of the event, instead of Maas and Lavrov, the head of the Department for Culture and Communication in the Foreign Office, Andreas Görgen, and the Russian ambassador Sergei Netschajew are named as official representatives.
When asked about Lavrov's visit to Berlin on Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said she had nothing to announce in this regard.
Germany's relations with Russia are currently being strained primarily by the poison attack on Kremlin critic Alexej Navalny.
Lavrov accuses the West of using the Navalny case as a pretext for new sanctions against Russia.
The prominent opposition figure is being treated at the Berlin Charité.
Icon: The mirror
mes / heb / Reuters