Lavrov: Putin-Macron Call Leak Breached 'Diplomatic Etiquette'

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated, on Wednesday, that the publication of a call between French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian leader Vladimir Putin was a breach of "diplomatic etiquette."

"Diplomatic etiquette does not provide for unilateral leaks of (such) recordings," Lavrov said during a trip to Vietnam. "We in principle lead negotiations in such a way that we never have anything to be ashamed of."

"We always say what we think and are ready to answer for these words and explain our position," he added.

In the same vein, Lavrov asserted that Moscow had nothing to be ashamed of from the content of the conversation between the two leaders.

Last June, the Russian minister stressed that his country is not clean amid current attacks in Ukraine, noting that they are not ashamed.

“Russia isn’t squeaky clean. It is what it is. We are not ashamed to show ourselves as we are,” Lavrov said during an interview with the BBC television channel.

He also indicated that Russia did not invade Ukraine but declared a special military operation at the point when there was absolutely no other solution.

“We declared a special military operation because we had absolutely no other way of explaining to the West that dragging Ukraine into NATO was a criminal act,” the top diplomat affirmed.

Furthermore, the minister recalled statements from Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy, “who said back in September 2021 (did you tell your viewers about it?) that if someone feels Russian in Ukraine, let them go to Russia.”