Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Skopje on Thursday to participate in the ministerial meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), “despite the machinations of the enemies,” said the spokeswoman for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova, quoted by AFP and Agerpres.

Sergey Lavrov and Maria ZakharovaPhoto: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation / TASS / Profimedia Images

“Serhii Lavrov arrived in Macedonia to participate in the OSCE ministerial meeting. Despite the tricks of the enemy, we are in Skopje,” wrote Zakharova in Telegram.

Bulgaria, which initially allowed Lavrov, who was sanctioned by the West for the war against Ukraine, to fly over Bulgarian airspace, later revoked this permission due to the presence on his plane of Maria Zakharova, who was also under sanctions and was banned from entering EU territory .

“The vicious stupidity of Russophobes led to the fact that for the first time in history, the authorities banned not a plane from the sky, but a person,” Zakharova commented.

Russian diplomacy condemns the “dangerous precedent” before the OSCE meeting

“This is written in the official note of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria: the plane can fly over Bulgaria, but Maria Zakharova cannot be on this plane,” she said, condemning the “dangerous precedent.”

Finally, the plane carrying Lavrov arrived in North Macedonia through Greek airspace, Russian press agencies report.

On Wednesday, Zakharova already accused the West of trying to prevent Sergey Lavrov’s participation in the OSCE meeting in Skopje, which will be boycotted by Ukraine and the Baltic countries to condemn the presence of the head of Russian diplomacy.

In 2022, Poland, which organized the OSCE meeting, refused entry to its territory to Lavrov, who fiercely defends the invasion launched by Russia in February 2022.

The origins of the OSCE date back to the Cold War, when two warring political blocs, the Western and the Soviet, agreed to create a platform for dialogue between them. Currently, the organization has 57 participants.

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