Sergei Lavrov: Josep Borrell and Antony Blinken are cowards

The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken are cowards who are afraid of any conversation with facts in hand, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said commenting on their absence from the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

"They probably believe that by doing so they highlight their intention to isolate Russia. I think that they just act cowardly. They fear any honest conversation with facts in hand,” Sergei Lavrov said.

On December 1, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, showed Lavrov two different photographs from Macedonian newspapers.

"The first photo was made the day before yesterday evening, when everyone arrived for dinner and took pictures. Now I understand why. It was done for this newspaper to publish this photo: "Everyone has arrived, but Lavrov is not here. Lavrov is isolated,” the minister said. "Well, it was the day before, a get-together: they gathered to have some good Macedonian wine and snacks. The opening was the next morning,” Lavrov continued.

Other newspapers published a photograph from the opening of the meeting, he said, and all countries were represented there behind their signs, including the Russian Federation.”

Lavrov also said that his Ukrainian counterpart Dmitry Kuleba, foreign ministers of Poland and the Baltic countries also left the event together with Blinken and Borrell.