💬 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov: The Americans had proposed holding [trilateral] talks [between Russia, the US and Ukraine]. We had agreed, on the understanding that we first needed to hold elections. Afterwards we would focus on discussing the timing, the venue, the agenda, and other details. Shortly after we responded to the US proposal, the Kiev regime began doing everything in its power to disrupt the State Duma elections. During all three days of the voting campaign, an unprecedented number of terrorist attacks were carried out against civilian targets, including polling stations with precinct election commissions. A number of people were injured, and one person has died We made it clear that given the circumstances, we need to have an idea of the proposals that Zelensky’s negotiators will bring to the table. The US side duly noted our arguments and was receptive to them. As for moving from statements to specific work, that question should be addressed to someone other than us [...] Our conscience is clear. Not to mention the fact that we fully accepted the proposals made by the USA in August 2025 during the Alaska summit between President Putin and President Trump. It is not our fault that the Americans were unable to withstand the unprecedented and brazen pressure from Europe, which later proudly declared that it had “buried Anchorage.” Excerpt from FM Lavrov's remarks and answers to media questions following a meeting of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers