Russia still ready for summit in Budapest, says Lavrov
Russia remains prepared to hold a second Russia–US summit in Budapest, provided the meeting builds upon the results of the earlier Alaska talks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday.
“We are still ready to hold the second Russian-US summit in Budapest, if it really relies on the work on Alaska results. The date has not been agreed. Russian-US contacts continue,” Lavrov said in an interview with Italy’s Corriere della Sera, which reportedly declined to publish it. TASS obtained exclusive rights to cite the minister’s remarks, News.Az reports, citing TASS.
Lavrov criticized The Financial Times for what he called a “false version” of events, claiming the newspaper wrongly linked the cancellation of the Budapest summit to a supposed Russian memorandum on Ukraine.
He accused the outlet of distorting the timeline and context in order to “blame Moscow and mislead U.S. President Donald Trump,” who, Lavrov said, had proposed a path “toward a sustainable and lasting peace rather than an immediate ceasefire.”
Lavrov further alleged that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s European backers were intent on prolonging the conflict by “taking a breather and flooding the Nazi regime with weapons to continue the war against Russia.”
Drawing a parallel with other media outlets, Lavrov added:
“If the BBC faked a video of Donald Trump’s speech by putting in his mouth a call for storming the Capitol, then The Financial Times, as we say, will lie without hesitation.”
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