Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will travel to Malta for a meeting of foreign ministers of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), despite EU sanctions against him, business magazine Vedomosti reported on Friday.
The report quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
The trip would be Lavrov’s first to an EU country since the European Union imposed sanctions on him and President Vladimir Putin in February 2022, immediately after Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The talks, the 31st OSCE Ministerial Council, will take place in Malta on 5 and 6 December. They are organized by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ian Borg.
Lavrov was last in an EU country in December 2021, also during an OSCE meeting.
When the OSCE met in Łódź, Poland, in December 2022, Warsaw denied Lavrov entry, even though EU sanctions do not stipulate this.
Although Moscow has withdrawn from a number of other European institutions, it has remained in the OSCE, viewing it as a platform to express its position on the war.
In a newspaper interview, Lavrov criticized Turkey for its arms shipments to Ukraine, saying they were killing Russian soldiers and civilians.
