Western Sanctions Caused By Willingness To Punish Moscow For Independent Policies - Lavrov

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th June, 2019) The West's willingness to punish Moscow for its independent foreign policy is the main reason behind anti-Russia sanctions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with RBC, released on Thursday.

"The main reason behind the sanctions is, firstly, to punish Russia for its independent foreign policy. As Russian President Vladimir Putin has said, the US ruling class has realized that the 1990s were an anomaly. And the traditions of the Russian civilization, history, self-sufficiency, multinationalism and multiculturalism have prevailed. The genetic code of our people has not vanished," Lavrov said.

US politicians, including those close to President Donald Trump, had not realized this and had been preventing Trump from living up to his promises of normalizing US-Russian relations, the top diplomat insisted.

Lavrov argued that unfair competition and attempts to boost competitiveness through sanctions pressure were the second reason behind the western sanctions.

The diplomat pointed out that the third reason was related to the attempts by the west to slow down the formation of a polycentric world.

Lavrov also recalled that the United States had introduced sanctions against China and other "more or less significant countries."

The United States, the European Union and other western countries slapped various sanctions on Moscow after a conflict in Ukraine erupted and Crimea rejoined Russia as a result of a referendum in 2014. Moscow has repeatedly said that it had not been involved in the Ukrainian crisis and insisted that the Crimea vote was carried out in line with international law.