MOSCOW, September 6. /TASS/. The confrontation with Western countries will be hard and will require moral and ideological mobilization, Alexey Drobinin, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's foreign policy planning department, said in an interview with the International Affairs magazine, which came out on Tuesday.
"We should prepare [ourselves] for this confrontation, since it is going to be long and hard and will require certain moral and ideological mobilization, as well as the consolidation of all our efforts to defend our interests and our future," he said.
According to Drobinin, at this point in history, Russia is faced with "a rather powerful, highly-motivated and well-trained brash opponent." "We should not think that due to some internal reasons he will fall apart or decay, as was said in Soviet times," he stressed.
The situation, in his words, will depend on how the economy develops, how correct and far-sighted the political moves of Russia’s authorities are, and how "determined we are in advocating our positions that we think are right and reflect the interests of our country and our people."