MOSCOW, April 20. /TASS/. US threats to tighten anti-Russian sanctions for what it may interpret as default on the Minsk Accords are absurd, because Kiev is the main brake on the peace process, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.
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"Our US and European partners are saying: ‘If the Minsk Accords are honored, we will lift sanctions from Russia’," Lavrov said. "We have stated more than once that we are not asking anyone for the lifting of sanctions. It is up to them to decide. They introduced the sanctions on an absolutely preposterous pretext. It’s a matter of their conscience."
"Just feel the logic of it. They say: ‘If the Minsk Accords are complied with, then the sanctions will be lifted, and if not, then Russia should be punished ever stronger," Lavrov said. "In the meantime, a closer look at who complies with the Minsk Accords and who does not makes it clear that Kiev is the main brake on the Minsk process."
"It turns out that the longer Kiev disrupts the implementation of the Minsk Accords, the more excuses the West invents to go ahead with pressure on Russia. That’s real absurd," Lavrov said.