Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Macedonia tonight to participate in the OSCE Ministerial Council.

The plane with which Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Skopje for the OSCE Ministerial Council flew over the airspace of Turkey and Greece, not Bulgaria, Russian media reported. The change of the flight route is due to the refusal of the Bulgarian authorities to allow an overflight of a plane carrying the spokeswoman of the Russian MFA, Maria Zakharova. The flight lasted more than five hours.

In the note from the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was seen by Russian media, it is said: “Permission to participate in the above-mentioned meeting in Skopje was given to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov and his accompanying delegation in accordance with the note <...> . The permission does not apply to the director of the information and press department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, who appears on the sanctions list, in accordance with the applicable EU laws.”According to Zakharova, for the first time in history, state authorities banned a person on a plane, not a plane, because, according to a note from the Bulgarian diplomatic department, the plane of the Russian MFA was allowed to fly over.