RIO DE JANEIRO. Nov 19 (Interfax) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that his handshake with French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brazil earlier this week should be seen as normal.
"In principle, if people know each other, [despite] deep rifts existing between them, between the countries that these people represent, but [if] these people encounter somewhere in a public place, I believe this is absolutely normal for them to say hello to each other if they know each other," Lavrov told a news conference at the close of the G20 summit.
"I believe, what is not normal is when many European leaders are shying away from Russian representatives when seeing them in corridors, behind the scenes or during photo sessions," he said.