MOSCOW, January 6. /TASS/. The fracture point in Russia-West relations emerged after Moscow refused to accept the "colonial" conditions on which Western companies might use Russia’s natural resources, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TV host Vladimir Solovyov in an interview, uploaded to his YouTube channel on Tuesday.

"They do not wish to see us as equal partners," the Kremlin spokesman said about the reasons for the worsening of Russia’s relations with the West.

Peskov recalled the practice of production sharing agreements, which allowed international companies to use natural resources for a meager two-percent share of the profits left to the host country. The Russian presidential spokesman described this arrangement as "classical British colonialism," adding that the percentage received in exchange for letting outsiders use the resources looked like "beads for the savages."

Peskov recalled that such agreements were concluded in the 1990s, but then the country began to gain strength and "president Vladimir Putin helped it come to its senses and shrug off this dependence."

"He stopped internal wars, made the economy work and called to order power-thirsty oligarchs," Peskov stressed. "Then the question arose: you, guys, should know that we don’t need beads. Colonial relations will not work anymore."

He stressed that in the mid-2000 the disputes over such agreements were "resolved constructively and cooperation is continuing."

"But such examples show us very clearly when the watershed was drawn," Peskov said, adding that he was referring to Russia’s refusal to be somebody’s colony. "That’s the fracture point in relations."

The presidential spokesman said that after the collapse of the Soviet Union Moscow suggested getting along in peace, but "they [in the West] replied: ‘No way, we will be friends to each other within our narrow circle, while you will still have the two-percent stake."

Asked about "red lines" in international diplomacy, Peskov said that "experience shows there have remained no red lines at all."

"In international politics our US counterparts have created a free-for-all where all rules have been broken," the Kremlin official said, adding in that connection that "everything that is being taught at the MGIMO university of international relations is no longer relevant.".