MOSCOW, May 20. /TASS/. The transition to a multipolar system may take a long time but Moscow has a lot of allies on this issue, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the 31st Assembly of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy on Saturday.

"Highhandedness and obsession with one’s superiority are certainly leading international relations into a very difficult situation. I don’t see any prospects for compromise here, which would freeze the process of transition from dictatorship to a multipolar world order. There may be some pauses and there may certainly be respites. However, the era of the transition to multipolarity and refusal to obey the hegemon is here. It may turn out to be a lengthy historical period but we have many allies in this work and in this struggle," Lavrov noted.

He pointed to Russia’s relations with China, India, ASEAN nations, Gulf countries, Iran, Turkey, the African Union, Latin American and Caribbean nations. "Of course, there also are organizations that bring together our close neighbors, namely the CIS, the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Eurasian Union. It’s not a secret that we have many difficulties; we can see how eagerly the West keeps sending its emissaries to all parts of the world, including our closest neighbors, without hesitating to demand that they cut many, if not all, trade, economic and investment ties with Russia, even making lists of the goods that should be included in Russian export bans," the top diplomat stressed.

"They (Western countries - TASS) know how to take advantage of the difficulties they create for others. Perhaps, they will achieve some results and some success in the short term but in the long run, they - primarily, the Americans - are shooting themselves in the foot," Lavrov concluded.