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German minister criticises Russian counterpart for Munich remarks


    MUNICH (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier criticised his Russian counterpart on Sunday for weekend remarks at a security conference which he said had not contributed to a resolution of the crisis in Ukraine.

    "It is Moscow's responsibility to identify common interests," Steinmeier said. "We have seen too little of this so far. And the speech by my colleague (Russian foreign minister Sergei) Lavrov yesterday made no contribution to this."

    Lavrov, speaking at the Munich conference on Saturday, delivered a diatribe against the West, accusing Europe and the United States of turning a blind eye to nationalists in Ukraine who were bent on ethnic cleansing, and seeking to pump the country full of lethal weapons.

    (Reporting by Noah Barkin and Sabine Siebold)