MOSCOW, February 12. /TASS/. Western anti-Russian sanctions cannot change Russia’s course on standing up for its national interests, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview on the Solovyev Live YouTube channel.

The Russian top diplomat recalled the statement of his German counterpart Heiko Maas who said that it is necessary to keep the Nord Stream-2 project in order to have means of influencing Russia. "It seemed to me that energy projects of the USSR and Russia in Europe have always been a material foundation of interdependence in a good way. When countries depend on each other in economy, it is always good, it allows for a simpler solution of many other problems," he noted.

"Then Heiko Maas said that Germany should consider sanctions against Russia for Alexey Navalny and it’s ok if previously they hadn’t hit the target. The main thing is to signal that Moscow’s actions did not go unnoticed. The sanctions are introduced in order to feel satisfaction that they ‘punish.’ Yet the sanctions don’t lead anywhere and cannot change our course on standing up for our national interests," the top diplomat noted.

"I mean that they won’t lead to achievement of goals the West intended for us," he explained.