Ladies and Gentlemen,

We have conducted valuable negotiations with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uganda, Sam Kutesa, which confirmed our disposition to further the deepening of our bilateral ties in various areas according to the agreements reached by the Presidents of our countries during their negotiations in Moscow in December 2012.

We stated that a lot has been done in this period, primarily in terms of preparations for a significant growth in our trade and economic ties. We discussed contacts between companies of our countries and Russian and Ugandan economic agencies, which demonstrated the existence of prospective areas of application of joint efforts in the area of energy, construction, infrastructure development, agriculture and fishing. We agreed to assist business circles in more active use of the mechanism of direct bilateral ties. In this regard, I can note with satisfaction that Sam Kutesa uses his stay in Moscow to continue this work directly with Russian companies.

We agreed on a more systemic approach to this work and acceleration of the creation of an Intergovernmental Commission for trade and economic cooperation. The preparation of this document for signature should be completed in the near future.

As to the topic related to the situation in Africa and on the international stage in general, our positions match in the majority of key problems of the modern times. We share views regarding the need to support objective processes of formation of a polycentric world order with the basis on international law, the central role of the UN, respect for national identity of each people and commitment to the collective search of answers to different global challenges and threats.

We noted the high level of cooperation of our delegations in the UN. We are grateful to our partners for the support of Russian draft resolutions, including the resolution, according to which Uganda traditionally becomes a co-author, about the inadmissibility of glorification of Nazism and revival of the modern forms of racism, xenophobia and intolerance. We appreciate the balanced approach of Kampala to the Ukrainian events, including the position taken by this country in the UN. We discussed in detail the Russian assessment of the development of the situation in Ukraine.

We devoted special attention to the situation in the African continent. We are interested that the conflicts there, which continue to develop and persist in this continent, are settled as soon as possible. This concerns Mali, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Great Lakes Region in general, South Sudan and inter-African relations. We highly appreciate the role played by Uganda in assisting in the search for a settlement of many of these crises within the framework of the African Union and the sub-regional organisation IGAD.

Our common position is that the specific ways of solving conflicts and crises should be defined by countries of the region, who know the nature of these problems better than others, but the task of the international community consists in supporting efforts of the African Union, the IGAD and other sub-regional organisations.

Russia as a permanent member of the UN Security Council will continue to actively contribute to the normalisation of the situation in different part of Africa, including through contributing to the reinforcement of the peacekeeping potential of African countries.

The Memorandum on consultations between Russian and Ugandan Foreign Ministries, which we have signed today, will contribute to more systemic work on the coordination of our actions with regard to the development of our bilateral relations and cooperation in international organisations.

We are satisfied with the results of our negotiations and expect that their results will benefit our countries and people, will contribute to the full implementation of the agreements by Russian and Ugandan Presidents.

Question: A message, which allegedly belong to you is being distributed over the internet, I quote: "When I look at the latest events, I understand that the Popular Republic of Donetsk is more likely a terrorist organisation, and it in no way represents interests of the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine. We continue to support federalisation of Ukraine, but Russia will hardly recognise independence of the PRD." How true is this quote and how will you comment on it? How would you characterise the referendum in Donetsk and Lugansk Regions? In your opinion, how will it influence the further process of settlement of the Ukrainian crisis?

Sergey Lavrov: The alleged "quote from my speech", which you have just read, is direct, open and uncovered lies. I know that lies and half-truths (which are sometimes worse than lies) are actively used during this crisis by Ukrainian 'actors', who seized power in Kiev, and their western patrons. However, they have not stooped to such a "simple invention" before. Probably it is insufficient for them to simply hide facts – truth does find its way out. The proactive activities of Russian journalists, who say and show the truth about the events in Odessa and crimes there, sometimes risking their lives, are a good contribution to this. They showed the attempt to repeat Odessa in Mariupol and how the so-called "hundreds of Maidan" and the national guard formed of radical extremists were used during preparations for referendums in Donetsk and Lugansk Regions, using heavy machinery and grenade launchers against unarmed nationals and how peaceful civilians were shot. Russian TV is showing these events as they happened. You will not see such pictures on respected channels as CNN, BBC and others.

We are convinced, again, that the Ukrainian authorities want to establish an information blockade and hiding the objective picture from TV and radio audiences, launch absolute out-and-out lies, like the ones you have just quoted.

Talking about the need to bring the truth (as a minimum) to those, who take decisions in western capitals, I can note the work of the ambassadors working in Moscow. I understand that Russian TV channels are simply blocked in Ukraine. In the west, there are attempts to "black them out" by preparing events, which are shown on the leading TV channels. However, ambassadors of foreign states in Moscow certainly see what Russian TV is airing. I am convinced that they simply must summarise and report the facts they watch to their capitals. Otherwise, their work will be unprofessional. I have no doubt that Washington, Brussels and other European capitals know well what is happening in Ukraine. The position, which our western partners attempt to take is all the more regretful, because they want to turn everything "upside down", disregarded their responsibility for the actions of the regime, which they have brought to power and shifting all the blame for this on the Russian Federation. I believe that we will not have to wait long, when it becomes clear for the growing number of objective observers that these attempts do not reach their target.

As far as I understand, official results of the referendums in Donetsk and Lugansk Regions will be announced soon. Preliminary results have already been announced. Several minutes ago, the press service of the President of the Russian Federation distributed a message on this, which says that we followed the preparation and holding of these referendums very closely, a high voter turnout was noted, despite the attempts to disrupt voting, including the use of militants, ultra-radicals, army, heavy machinery against peaceful civilians, which unfortunately resulted in casualties. Nevertheless, there was high turnout at the referendums. According to our information, the results will be announced soon. . We respect the expression of will by the Donetsk and Lugansk Regions and believe that the practical implementation of the results of this voting will take place in a civilised way, without any repeated violence, through a dialogue between representatives from Kiev, Donetsk and Lugansk. We deem it important to promote such a dialogue and will welcome any mediation efforts, including within the ambit of the OSCE.

Question: Are there plans to hold another four-party meeting on Ukraine in Geneva? What are the prospects of its convention?

Sergey Lavrov: No new meetings on Ukraine are being planned. We would like these efforts to continue rather than hamper, and materialise into some process as soon as possible. I say "some process", because there are no prospects in the same four-party format. At this current stage we believe, but all the key players seem to agree, that all the main settlement principles were agreed at the Geneva meeting on the 17 April, and there is no need to repeat the same, but we do need to develop these principles into practical actions, which must be undertaken by the conflicting parties – the Kiev authorities and those, who do not agree to their policy, primarily the South-Eastern regions.

I heard statements by the Acting head of the Ukrainian Foreign Service, Andrii Deshchytsia, and the spokesman for the White House, Jay Carney, about the need to keep the four-party format of the negotiations – with participation from Russia, the United States, the European Union and representatives of the current Kiev authorities. I repeat, if opponents of the regime are not involved in direct talks on the issues of how to get out of the crisis, nothing will come of this. My conversation partners, including the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, the German Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, acknowledge this. They are for the transfer of the Geneva principles into a direct dialogue between the Ukrainian parties. The same logic forms the basis of the initiative of the so-called 'roadmap' proposed by the current OSCE President, Swiss President, Didier Burkhalter, after his visit to Moscow, which details the steps of organisation of a dialogue between the representatives of Kiev, South-East and other regions of Ukraine. We are convinced that this should be done as soon as possible. I repeat, it is pity that some people in Washington and Kiev are against the involvement of regions in this dialogue. Therefore, despite Russia's readiness, the 'roadmap' prepared by the OSCE President has not been publicised. This is another confirmation that Kiev is not aware of the need to talk to its people. I heard that the Kiev leaders announced the beginning of some consultation processes with regional administrations and local self-government bodies on the introduction of changes to the constitution. Nobody has seen this text. They promised to publish it based on some private work in the Verkhovna Rada, which was absolutely non-transparent, and did not involve regions. They promised to publish this text two week ago, then a week ago. Now they have allegedly invited regions to participate in this work, although (I repeat) nobody has seen this text. I am not convinced that it will be possible in the near future, but we believe that it is extremely important to start a national dialogue on the basis of the propositions formulated by the OSCE President. This should be done in parallel with the investigation of the committed crimes, which is also envisaged by the roadmap, which is promoted by the Swiss Presidency.