The US and the EU are still pursuing a dangerous policy of restraining Russia, including the NATO military buildup near its borders, Russia’s foreign minister said, adding that Moscow is ready to cooperate on an equal and mutually beneficial basis.
“The policy of restraining Russia continues, though it is high time to drop this policy and file it in the historical archives,” Sergey Lavrov told a media briefing in Moscow, TASS reported.
The Russian foreign minister agreed that relations between Moscow and the West would never be the same again.
“There will be no more business as usual after they attempted to impose agreements on us respecting the interests of either the European Union or the US in the first place, trying to convince us that they will not damage our interests,” he said. “That’s over now.”
Moscow is ready for “close, constructive cooperation” with its western partners, yet solely and only on an equal and mutually beneficial basis, “without interference into each other’s internal affairs, with respect for the principal interests of each side,” Lavrov said.
Western countries are still trying to “accrue one-sided benefits” and even attempting “to punish us for conducting an independent international policy”, Lavrov said.
“Of course, we take that into account in our actions. But that’s not our choice.”
