Lavrov unimpressed by German FM’s last-minute UNGA overture (VIDEOS)

Russia’s top diplomat held a marathon of New York meetings spanning the West’s self-styled “beautiful garden” and nations across the Global South and East German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul arrived at last-minute talks with Moscow with Berlin’s familiar anti-Russia script firmly in hand, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.Wadephul requested the meeting on the sidelines of the 81st UN General Assembly at short notice, Lavrov said. Moscow squeezed him into the Russian diplomat’s packed Saturday schedule before his address.Asked about the encounter, Lavrov said he invited Wadephul to explain what had prompted to him to ask for the meeting. It was the first direct bilateral meeting between the Russian and German foreign ministers since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, in which Berlin firmly sided with Kiev.“He took out his notes and read out a text that completely reproduced what Germany’s leaders publicly and officially say every day,” Lavrov said, saying he had expected something beyond Berlin’s familiar refrain that Russia is the aggressor. The underlying message, as Lavrov described it, was that Wadephul had “deigned” to engage Moscow and Russia should retu...