The appearance of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the G-20 meeting of foreign ministers in Bali and his abrupt departure have once again demonstrated Moscow's openness to negotiations on an end to the war in Ukraine.
However, that was clear beforehand.
If you don't allow yourself to be guided by wishful thinking when looking at Russia, but instead take the words and actions of the decisive men in Moscow seriously, you don't have to waste any time worrying about whether the Kremlin would accept an end to the war other than a surrender by Ukraine.
For there to be any chance of serious peace negotiations, the West must raise the cost of this war to Russia beyond its pain threshold through massive arms sales to Ukraine and further sanctions.
Unfortunately, that can take a long time.
The war is far away from Africa and Asia
However, the outcome of this struggle will not only be decided in the direct confrontation of Ukraine and its friends with the aggressor.
It also matters who the rest of the world leans toward.
And Russia's cards are not as bad as Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock's statement suggests, in Bali it was 19-1 against Lavrov.
For many countries in Africa and Asia, the war in Ukraine is just as far away as the bloody conflicts in the Global South are for Europeans.
For them, the causes of this war are not as crucial at the moment as its consequences, which are becoming an existential threat due to rising raw material prices and food shortages.
In addition, the moral authority of the western democracies in their former colonies is not exactly great, for understandable reasons.
It is all the more important not to let Russia take the stage at international meetings.
At the G-20 summit in the fall, the heads of state and government should confront Vladimir Putin, as well as the foreign ministers, Lavrov.