Sergei Lavrov

Moscow said Thursday it had denied an upcoming consular visit to detained US reporter Evan Gershkovich in retaliation for Washington not issuing visas to several Russian journalists.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov complained last weekend that the United States had denied visas to Russian journalists due to travel with him to the UN headquarters.

Turkey's foreign minister said on Friday he agreed with Russia's request to lift obstacles to Russian fertilizer and grain exports, and that this needed to be addressed to extend the overall Black Sea grain deal involving Ukraine.

In accordance with the regular rotation, Russia will begin presiding over this UN body in April, and as announced by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the first session under Russian leadership will be chaired by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Moscow on Friday accused foreign countries of fomenting mass protests in Georgia, likening them to an attempted coup designed to sow tension on Russia's borders.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that several days of demonstrations in the Georgian capital Tbilisi reminded him of a Ukrainian uprising that ousted a Kremlin-friendly government in 2014.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov again threatened Chisinau, saying that "the West has already set its sights on the Republic of Moldova to play the role of the next Ukraine" and that Maia Sandu "is ready, practically, for almost anything, including an alliance with Romania", reported the "Romania Journal", quoting the Moldovan television TVR.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed his dissatisfaction with the position Greece has taken in relation to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, through the Russian embassy in Athens.

It said senior Kremlin officials continue to hold high-level meetings with the Belarusian leadership.
By doing so, they could create the conditions for a major Russian attack on Ukraine from Belarus, but that, they add, is unlikely to happen in the coming weeks.

The European Union has frozen Russian assets worth around 17 billion euros since Moscow invaded Ukraine, EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said in an interview.     

The figure has risen from the roughly 13.8 billion euros ($13.75 billion) "from oligarchs and other entities" that Reynders announced in July that the EU had frozen, mainly in five countries.    

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday that Moscow would not reject that meeting.
Asked whether he would meet Putin at next month's Group of 20 summit in Indonesia, Biden said he didn't see a good reason for a sit-down.

Türkiye on Oct. 11 called for a ceasefire in Ukraine ahead of a meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in the Kazakh capital Astana.

"A ceasefire must be established as soon as possible. The sooner the better," Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said in an interview with the TVnet broadcaster.