FACE TO FACE

Blinken and Lavrov Have an Awkward Chat at the G20

It was the first time the U.S. secretary of state and his Russian counterpart met in person since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had a brief and seemingly awkward chat with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the G20 summit Thursday. In a conversation lasting about 10 minutes—the first face-to-face encounter the two have had since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year—Blinken urged the Kremlin to work toward a peace deal in Ukraine and called for the release of U.S. captives, according to a State Department official. The exchange reportedly went poorly enough that Blinken walked away not expecting any changes in Russia’s stance anytime soon. Russia’s Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, stressed that the brief encounter did not represent any kind of “negotiations” and that Blinken had been the one to initiate the conversation.