MOSCOW, March 23. /TASS/. Russia has more than enough resources to be independent and open to external projects, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday.

"Our country is huge. We have more than enough resources, brains, everything you need to be self-sufficient, but open to the world for mutually beneficial projects," he said.

He noted Russia is now doing work that should bring the utmost clarity to its relations with the rest of the world. "Clarity, which will be based on the absence of future reliance on the West. If they wish to collaborate, we will pursue it on an equal footing, in both our and their interests, if such a balance exists," Lavrov said.

"But in my opinion we have no right to open doors for them so that they enter key sectors of our economy that are critical for the health and security of people and our country," Lavrov Minister added.

He noted that there has always been sanctions pressure on Russia, but the current magnitude of the latest Western sanctions on Russia is startling. "Sanctions have always existed. President [of Russia Vladimir Putin] talked about it. But the current magnitude, of course, is startling, because I did not expect the West to have such imagination," he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories.