MOSCOW, August 3. /TASS/. The era of constructive cooperation between Russia and Western countries is irrevocably over, regardless of the outcome of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine, Alexey Drobinin, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Foreign Policy Planning Department, said in an article published on the International Affairs magazine’s website on Wednesday.

"Regardless of the duration and outcome of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, we can already state now that the thirty-year era of generally constructive, though not problematic, cooperation with the West is irrevocably over," Drobinin noted.

According to him, the current situation provides a unique opportunity to finally get rid of residual illusions and to take Russia beyond the paradigm of ‘friendly absorption’, which has been reproduced over and over again by Western colleagues since 1992. "It is clear that there will be no return to the situation before February 24 in relations with North American and European countries," the diplomat summarized.