YANGON (AFP) -  Russia backs the Myanmar junta’s efforts to “stabilise” the crisis-wracked country, its foreign minister said Wednesday (Aug 3) during talks with junta leaders, according to Russian state media.

“We are in solidarity with the efforts (by the junta) aimed at stabilising the situation in the country,” Mr Sergei Lavrov said during talks in Myanmar’s military-built capital Naypyidaw.

Mr Lavrov arrived in Myanmar for talks with junta leaders, stopping off on his way to a regional meeting that has snubbed the military over its refusal to halt its bloody crackdown on dissent.

He was in Naypyidaw "for a working visit", Russia's Foreign Affairs Ministry said on Twitter.

The junta had yet to comment on the visit by the top diplomat of one of its major allies and arms suppliers.

Mr Lavrov's visit comes after the junta sparked renewed international outrage last week when it announced it had executed four prisoners, including a former lawmaker and a democracy activist, in the country's first use of capital punishment in decades.

Mr Lavrov is scheduled to travel on to an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) foreign ministers meeting in Cambodia from which the junta's top diplomat has been excluded over its refusal to engage in dialogue with its opponents.

Russia and China have been accused of arming Myanmar's junta with weapons used to attack civilians since last year's coup.

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing was in Moscow on a "private" visit in July and reportedly met with officials from Moscow's space and nuclear agencies.