Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reached out Tuesday to the new government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau while decrying the government of Trudeau's predecessor Stephen Harper as "Russia-phobic."

Speaking during a wide-ranging annual foreign affairs news conference in Moscow, Lavrov said Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trudeau met on the sidelines of the G2O meeting in November in Turkey and "both expressed desire to normalize relations."

After that meeting, Trudeau said to reporters he had told Putin that "Russia's interference in Ukraine must cease."

Russia looks forward to correct the "mistakes of predecessors," referring to Stephen Harper's government, Lavrov said Tuesday. He called the last two years under the Harper government a "lost opportunity" in bilateral relations.

Lavrov said Russia "was stunned by the absence of pragmatism" as Canada followed the "blatant interests of the Ukrainian diaspora ignoring Canada's national interests."

Russia looks forward to new relations with Canada, Lavrov said.