Lavrov and Maas discuss Donbass, Karabakh conflict and Navalny's poisoning.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has had a phone call with his German counterpart Heiko Maas Thursday. The sides discussed the conflict in Donbass, the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and Alexei Navalny's poisoning.

"They discussed the peaceful settlement negotiation process in the Contact Group and the Normandy Format, stressing the need for a direct dialogue between Kiev, Donetsk and Lugansk as parties to the conflict, as well as the mediatory efforts of Russia, Germany, France and the OSCE in order to execute the Minsk Package of Measures and the agreements of the 2019 Paris Summit in the Normandy Format," the statement posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website reads.

The diplomats also discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, "reaffirming the need to implement the agreements fixed in the Moscow statement by the foreign ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia dated October 10, 2020 as soon as possible," the ministry added.

In addition, Lavrov once again underlined the unacceptable nature of Berlin’s position as it refuses to honor its international obligations that arise from the 1959 European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters and obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention. "Hope was expressed that the German government will refrain from further artificially politicizing this situation that seriously damages the Russian-German relations," the Russian minister added.