Sergey Lavrov

Russia will respond to fresh sanctions from the United States, deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said Dec. 13 after US lawmakers passed a bill to impose new penalties on Moscow over the Ukraine crisis.

"Undoubtedly, we will not be able to leave this without a response," Ryabkov told Interfax news agency.

"It is hardly any secret that the aim sanctions is to create social and economic conditions to change [the ones in] power in Russia," a deputy minister has told Russia's lower house of Parliament, the State Duma.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the West on Nov. 22 of trying to use sanctions imposed on Moscow in the Ukraine crisis to seek "regime change" in Russia. 

His comments stepped up Moscow's war of words with the United States and the European Union in their worst diplomatic standoff since the Cold War ended. 

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the West on Nov. 22 of trying to use sanctions imposed on Moscow in the Ukraine crisis to seek "regime change" in Russia. 

His comments stepped up Moscow's war of words with the United States and the European Union in their worst diplomatic standoff since the Cold War ended. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Nov. 21 that "all the elements" were in place to reach an agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme, calling for a compromise at the Vienna talks.
      

Ukraine has turned down Moscow's suggestion to talk directly to pro-Russian rebels to put an end to the conflict in the eastern part of the country.

NATO warned on Nov. 18 of a "very serious" build-up of Russian soldiers and weapons inside Ukraine and on its border as Germany's foreign minister urged Kyiv and Moscow to respect a tattered peace plan.
      
The West is keeping up pressure on Russia over Ukraine following a bad-tempered G20 summit in Australia at the weekend which Russian President Vladimir Putin left early.

Russia said on Nov. 18 it hopes its ties with the EU had not yet crossed the point of no return over the Ukraine crisis after Brussels slapped more sanctions against Kremlin-backed separatists fighting Kiev.
      
"We are hoping that the 'point of no return' has not yet been crossed," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a meeting in the Belarussian capital Minsk.

Russia said Monday it has expelled a German diplomat and a number of Polish diplomats in response to the expulsion of its diplomats amid cooling ties with the EU over Ukraine.
      
Moscow said the German was expelled from Moscow in a retaliatory measure for what it described as an "unfriendly" step earlier by Berlin of expelling a Russian diplomat.
      

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet US Secretary of State John Kerry in Beijing on Saturday ahead of next week's APEC summit, Russian news agencies reported on Friday.