Russian Foreign Minister says Moscow is ready to renew relations with the West, but their form will no longer be the same as they were before 2022, RIA reports; will see what US envoys Witkoff and Kushner offer, but there will be no political concessions

• Russia doesn’t expect any miracle from its relations with the US; Washington will always remain a competitor for Moscow.
• Lavrov allowed for the possibility of resuming operations of the Nord Stream pipeline.

Statements of this kind from the Russian Foreign Minister fit the established pattern of signalling openness to dialogue while pre-committing to no concessions, a formulation that has recurred at every stage of the post-2022 standoff and has historically preceded negotiation rather than announced it. The operative transmission channel is not the rhetoric but the Nord Stream reference: any credible path to restoring Russian pipeline flows to Europe reprices the TTF curve and the European gas risk premium, while also feeding into EUR through terms-of-trade and into the metals complex through sanctions assumptions on Russian supply. The mention of Witkoff and Kushner places the channel on the US side rather than the multilateral one, which is the distinction that matters: bilateral US-Russia formats in past episodes have produced headline progress faster than allied-coordinated ones, but with less durability and more scope for European and Ukrainian objection to stall implementation. The 'no political concessions' qualifier caps the tail risk in both directions, since it rules out the kind of comprehensive settlement that would trigger large-scale sanctions relief and the associated commodity flow normalisation. What carries information next is whether the envoys' offer is characterised by Moscow as substantive, whether European capitals are consulted or presented with a fait accompli, and whether energy or sanctions language moves from rhetorical possibility to a dated agenda item. As commentary rather than a decision, the signal is directional at most.