The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the meeting between German Foreign Minister Johann Vaddeful and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in New York was organized primarily to demonstrate diplomatic activity to the German public, Focus reports.
According to Zakharova, it was the German side that requested the talks between the two ministers. She said the meeting did not yield any significant results and was more of a public demonstration of activity on the part of Berlin.
“I have an assumption that these negotiations, which they requested and which degenerated into a simple reading of text from a piece of paper, were needed only to demonstrate some activity to the Germans“, Zakharova said, quoted by TASS.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman also linked the initiative to the domestic political situation in Germany. According to her, the goal was to support the rating of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, which, according to her, is declining.
The meeting between Vaddeful and Lavrov took place in New York against the backdrop of ongoing diplomatic efforts surrounding the war in Ukraine and differences between Moscow and Berlin over how to end the conflict.
Zakharova's assessments of the German government's motives represent the position of the Russian side.