Mr Lavrov called for a solution based on an Arab League initiative from last November, but gave no indication that Russia backed the league's more recent call for Mr Assad to step down
The missile deployment is likely to be approved, adds our correspondent, despite opposition from Russia, whose foreign minister is also attending Tuesday's meeting in Bruss
Appealing to patriotic feeling, Mr Putin pointed out that Russia had no worthy monument to its dead of World War I, an event largely eclipsed by the October Revolution of 1917.
The diplomatic appeals to Moscow come ahead of Sunday's referendum in Crimea, in which citizens will be asked if they want to stay with Ukraine or join Russia.
Mr Steinmeier did not state bluntly that Russia should pull back but, rather, that it should do more to reassure the West about its intentions - or sanctions might follow when EU leaders meet on Thursday: "I think that if we don't see decisive steps in the next one-and-a-half days in terms of coming to an international agreement, for example on the creation of a contact group with which Russia is ready to work, then I think the discussion among leaders in the European Council will indeed lead to measures being taken."
Chancellor Merkel has involved herself in the politics of the region. She has maintained links with heads of state, including President Putin, but also with dissidents in both Russia and Ukraine - remember that the jailed Russian oligarch and Putin opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky flew straight to Berlin when he was freed from his Russian prison.
