MOSCOW, February 22. /TASS/. Suggestions that there would have been no sanctions and condemnation from the West against Russia if it had not recognized the sovereignty of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR) are an illusion, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoma Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday on Solovyov Live YouTube channel.

"A very important point. Now everybody wonders, what’s with the sanctions, what the reaction will be, how ‘the Western wave of anger’ will spread [triggered by Russia's recognition of the sovereignty of the DPR and LPR]. But it's a great illusion to think that there would have been no sanctions, anger, or condemnations [if Russia had not recognized the DPR and the LPR]. There certainly would have been," the diplomat stressed.

"Let’s take for instance, the example of ‘the Western message’, as they are always motivated by the interests of people and specifically someone whose rights need to be protected. Let's take the story of Crimea. In 2014, it was impossible not to notice that the decision to reunite with Crimea was made on the basis of the will of the Crimeans, there was a referendum, an appeal, and so on, but no one noticed. However, it was impossible not to notice that since 2014, human rights, those notorious human rights: the language, the legal framework, everything else, along with the development of the media, indeed, took place in Crimea incomparably more, many times more than it was before 2014. But the West managed not to notice and has been extending Crimean sanctions against our country every year," she added.

According to Zakharova, the West "does not need grounds" for sanctions. "Even if those grounds contradicted their message and the actual facts, it wouldn’t make any difference," the diplomat said.