"It's becoming contagious when somebody sees an American talking to me or a European talking to me. Europeans are running away when they see me. During the last G20 meeting, it was ridiculous. Grown-up people, mature people. They behave like kids. So childish. Unbelievable," Russian Foreign Minister told American journalist.

"[US Secretary of State Antony Blinken] said something about the need to de-escalate and so on and so forth. I hope he's not going to be angry with me since I am disclosing this: but we were meeting in front of many people present in the room, and I said, 'We don't want to escalate. You want to inflict strategic defeat upon Russia.' He said, 'No. It is not strategic defeat globally. It is only in Ukraine.'" Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recalled to Tucker Carlson, referencing his last meeting with his US counterpart at the G20 Summit in Rome in October 2021.

Promoting separatism is "what the Americans are doing in the east of Syria when they groom some Kurdish separatists using the profits from oil and grain sold, the resources which they occupy," Lavrov said.

"I think he's a very strong person. A person who wants results. Who doesn't like procrastination on anything. This is my impression. He's very friendly in discussions. But this does not mean that he's pro-Russian as some people try to present him. The amount of sanctions we received under the Trump administration was very big," Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recalled in his interview with Tucker Carlson.

"And the same was reiterated bilaterally between Russia and the United States, Putin and Biden, when they met in 2021 in Geneva…This is absolutely in our vital interest, and we hope that this is also in vital interest of the United States," Lavrov stressed.