MOSCOW, February 12. /TASS/. Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over its stance on developments in neighboring Ukraine are completely illegitimate and such measures have never worked against any country, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexey Meshkov said in an interview with TASS news agency on Thursday.
"We have a principled position on sanctions. We have always been quite skeptical about sanctions as such because as far as I can remember sanctions have never worked against any country, even really legitimate sanctions, that is, sanctions approved by the UN Security Council," the Russian deputy foreign minister said.
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"As for the sanctions against Russia, they are completely illegitimate. And it is for those who imposed the sanctions to think about how to get rid of them because sanctions are a double-edged weapon," Meshkov said.
The deputy foreign minister cited the example of the exports of machinery to Russia.
"This is the sector that was hit hard by the sanctions in West European countries, for example, Germany and France. However, simultaneously, US machinery exports to Russia increased by 40% last year," the Russian diplomat said.
"Of course, this is not an economic law but it really works this way or another when we talk about sanctions," he said.
"The sanctions are senseless, they are illegitimate and it is not for us to decide for the EU and the US how they should act with regard to the sanctions," the Russian diplomat said.