Lavrov suggests Russia stop talking to EU leaders

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested Russia should stop talking to the European Union leaders, when speaking via video call at the Valdai discussion club's "History, To Be Continued: The Utopia of a Diverse World" online conference. "The people who are in charge of foreign policy in the West and don't understand the need for mutually respectful dialogue - probably, we should stop talking to them for some time, especially when Ursula von der Leyen says there can hardly be any geopolitical partnership with the present Russian officials," Lavrov said.

Lavrov also said that the European Union and Germany should "fulfil the international obligations" and cooperate with Russia over the issue of Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny. European Union ministers have blamed Russian officials and organizations for the poisoning of Navalny with a Soviet-era nerve agent and on Monday agreed to impose sanctions on them.

"There is the convention on assistance in criminal investigations, the Pan-European Convention, its protocols. We appeal to them (to conventions), and ask Germany to fulfil its obligations under these international legal instruments," Lavrov said.

Navalny's supporters have frequently maintained that the poisoning could have only been ordered at the top level, although the Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed the allegation. Navalny, a corruption investigator who is Russian President Vladimir Putin's fiercest critic, was flown to Germany two days after falling ill on August 20 on a domestic flight in Russia.

He spent 32 days in the hospital, 24 of them in intensive care, before doctors deemed his condition sufficiently improved for him to be discharged. German officials have said labs found traces of a chemical agent from the Novichok family in the Russian politician's system.