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Anti-Russian sanctions trigger total collapse of relations with European countries — MFA

Maria Zakharova emphasized that the Western countries had shifted confrontation with Russia to the regional frameworks of cooperation in Northern Europe and in the Arctic, "the activities of which cannot be subject to the current situation"

SVETLOGORSK, October 14. /TASS/. The West’s sectoral and individual sanctions on Russia have resulted in a total collapse of bilateral relations with European countries, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday in a video address to the plenary session of the forum ‘History for the Future. The Russian West’.

"The sectoral and personal sanctions have triggered a total collapse of bilateral relations with many European states. The commercial, economic and investment ties were not blocked by us, but by the other side," she said.

"A mass exodus of companies from the Russian market for political reasons fabricated by the West was orchestrated, and sectoral, scientific, educational and sports cooperation, along with the development of border cooperation, was scrapped," the diplomat added.

Zakharova emphasized that the Western countries had also shifted confrontation with Russia to the regional frameworks of cooperation in Northern Europe and in the Arctic, "the activities of which cannot be subject to the current situation."

According to the diplomat, the defiant anti-Russian policy of the Western countries, which "is being implemented under the umbrella of NATO and the EU, which has turned into an integral part of the alliance, is a serious obstacle to maintaining a political dialogue".

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