Russia is open to talks with US but received no sane proposals so far, says Lavrov

Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov has said that Russia is open to talks with the US but there have been no sane proposals from Washington so far. As per a report from Russian state news agency TASS, Lavrov said that the situation in the US has reached a point where it cannot get any worse. Lavrov reinstated that Moscow has not rejected contacts with the US. 

"All these talks that someone is willing to meet us or someone is reluctant to meet us - they [the US] seem to be convincing themselves. We are not imploring anyone. We have never turned down a single serious, sane proposal on holding contacts. No one is offering any sane initiatives," the Russian foreign minister said. Lavrov was speaking with a journalist on "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin," which is a programme that is aired on Rossiya-24 television, a Russian news channel. The show was being hosted by a Russian host named Pavel Zarubin. 

US-Russia relations at lowest point

When he was asked if US president Joe Biden's unwillingness to talk was complicating matters globally, Lavrov said that in his estimation it was not because the situation with the US has reached such a point where it cannot get any more worse. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that there were no plans to seek a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, she added that the White House was open to considering Moscow's proposal of prisoner exchange. Western nations such as the UK have imposed sanctions on individuals like Lavrov. 

Is Russia diplomatically isolated?

Lavrov's statement comes at a time when Putin was scheduled to meet Turkish president Erdogan on the sidelines of a summit. Erdogan and his foreign minister, both have urged for the implementation of a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, arguing that peace talks are necessary. Turkey is the only NATO nation which has not joined western sanctions against Russia. Meanwhile, the war continues on the battlefield with Russia using drones to target Ukraine's critical infrastructure as a payback for the attack on Crimea bridge. 

Moreover, Russia detained eight suspects over the deadly blasts of the bridge linking Crimea to Russia, the FSB security service said in a statement. The suspects include five Russians and "three Ukrainian and Armenian citizens," it said.