MOSCOW, January 26. Russia and the West should ideally support each other, but in fact it turns out that the Western partners are turning to Moscow for help more often. This was stated by Minister of foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov at a press conference at the end of the year.
“Ideally, we should be need each other, to support each other and work collectively to curb the threats that are common to us all,’ he said. – In fact, it appears that we are approached more often than we do to the West”.
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According to the Minister, Russia “does not run” for Western colleagues urging them to remove the sanctions. “The Russian Federation does not mention the sanctions that were imposed by the West against Russia, Lavrov explained. – We just start jumping to conclusions about how reliable and are able to negotiate our Western partners how much they are willing to follow the standard approaches, which are that only the UN Security Council may adopt coercive measures”. “And by giving yourself negative answers to these questions, then we have what you might call “structural reforms,” he said.
The Minister noted that today Russia has been focused on “not to depend on these zigzags in Western politics.” “Our economy should be self-sufficient, not isolated from the world, and open for cooperation with all who are ready for it on the basis of equality, rather than dictate, he said. – We should do everything not to depend on the whims of a country of the country, first of all our Western partners, as has happened after they got annoyed with us because we supported the Russians in the Ukraine that have not accepted the coup, and which is, by and large, promised to destroy or cut them in their rights. This is the kind of situations we want to be insured”.
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Lavrov stressed that the European colleagues in their bilateral contacts, urging Russia to implement the Minsk agreements. “They say: “Give us something to do, and that we take too much damage and want that the page is turned,” he said. “So it turns out that in this situation, we need that more than they, he continued. – Including the need to implement the Minsk agreements. Although the Minsk agreement is the Ukrainian government and the Donbass”.
The Minister noted that Russia has influence on the Donbass. “We support the Donbass and without our help, without humanitarian supplies to the Donbas would be in very poor condition, – said Lavrov. But you also need to influence the authorities in Kiev”. “We need the West in terms of influence on the Kiev authorities, but this is not yet happening,” he said.
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“Or, you take another situation, – said Lavrov. – When it was necessary to decide the question of removal of enriched uranium in exchange for natural uranium, when it was necessary to resolve the question of who will convert the processing object under Ford research purposes, production of medical isotopes and so on, we have been approached with requests that have a serious financial burden, but do not bring us any material gain. However, Russia is his part of the work was done”.
According to the Minister, every time Western partners “are appealing to Russia with a request to find any compromise or isolation”. “I just now don’t recall what requests we turned to the West for the last time, – concluded Lavrov. – We consider that it is not correct to apply. We believe that if the negotiations resulted in the signing of the document, it is not the subject of the request, and the obligation, to perform”.
