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Anti-Russian sanctions

Russia never embarked on dragging down relations with EU, says Lavrov

According to the minister, Moscow receives signals from the EU that it wants to improve relations, but in such a way that Russia begins this process and the EU would respond to that

© AP Photo/Francisco Seco

YEREVAN, November 11. /TASS/. Moscow has never initiated any steps aimed at worsening ties with the European Union (EU), Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday addressing graduates from the Diplomatic School and university students in Yerevan.

"We have never initiated any worsening [of ties] whatsoever, not even a minimal rollback in relations between our country and the EU. The current abnormal situation has evolved after the EU inflexibly backed the coup in Ukraine staged from overseas," he said.

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Lavrov stressed that the European Union decided to employ "the recognition of the will of people in Crimea and the fact that Russia stood up for the rights of Donbass residents who refused to accept the coup," as its point of departure for its current relations with Russia.

The Russian top diplomat added that the EU "took offense and imposed sanctions" after Moscow responded to a request from the people in Crimea and stood up for Donbass residents."

"When we start the conversation, I always bring them back not to March 2014 but to February, when the opposition didn’t care one bit about Germany’s and France’s signatures," Lavrov stressed.

According to the minister, Moscow receives signals from the EU that it wants to improve relations, but in such a way that Russia begins this process and the EU would respond to that. "However, it wasn’t us who announced the sanctions. We did not terminate all the mechanisms of cooperation with the EU. We had more than 20 sectoral dialogues, which have been frozen. Summits are no longer held, as well as meetings between the Russian foreign minister and the EU foreign policy chief," Lavrov concluded.

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Sanctions vs. Russia

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