MOSCOW

The Russian foreign minister on Tuesday called the killing of Russian journalist Darya Dugina a "barbaric crime," and said perpetrators deserve no mercy.

"The investigation, I hope, will be completed quickly, and based on the results of this investigation, of course, there can be no mercy” for the plotters and executioners, Sergey Lavrov said at a news conference, following a meeting with his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad.

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) held Ukrainian authorities responsible for killing Dugina, a 29-year-old Russian journalist.

According to the FSB, Natalya Vovk, a Ukrainian national, arrived in Russia to commit the crime and after executing the task left the country.

Dugina, who was killed in a car explosion on the outskirts of Moscow late Saturday, was the daughter of Russian sociologist and philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, who heads the International Eurasian Movement, a political movement that opposes American values like liberalism and capitalism.

Dugin was included in the list of "100 Global Thinkers of the Modern World" by Foreign Policy magazine in 2014. He is also on the US and EU sanctions lists because of his open support to Russian President Vladimir Putin's policy.

Russia condemns Israeli strikes on Syria

Speaking about the Israeli strikes on Syrian territory, Lavrov said Moscow “strongly” condemns them and demands that Israel comply with international law and stop violating the sovereignty of Syria.

"This also applies to a number of other countries that conduct illegal activities on Syrian territory, including the American activity, which is associated with the promotion of separatism directly in violation of the UN Security Council resolution," he said.

Lavrov recalled that on July 19, at the summit in Tehran, Russian, Turkish and Iranian presidents issued a joint statement that confirms respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria, the prevention of any actions that encourage separatist tendencies and other steps that violate UN Security Council resolution 2254.

He said that the 19th international meeting on Syria will take place in Kazakhstan's capital Nur-Sultan by the end of the year.

He also said that he plans to discuss the implementation of the Russian-Turkish-Iranian agreements at a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollhaian in the near future.

Asked about the possibility of a new Turkish military operation in northern Syria, Lavrov said: "The main thing is to prevent any new military actions, to negotiate through diplomatic channels on the basis of the political principles that previously existed in relations between Syria and Türkiye."

According to him, the main goal of the Astana format is the normalization between two neighboring countries – Syria and Türkiye.

Syria admits the presence of "a terrorist threat in its north" and is ready to take responsibility for this territory after the full restoration of control over it, the Russian minister said.