MOSCOW, August 16. /TASS/. Moscow does not seek a geopolitical war with Western countries, only that its interests be respected, Dmitry Birichevsky, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department of Economic Cooperation, said.
"As for us, we don’t discriminate against Western businessmen; we work with them, maintain dialogue and help them integrate into the current system of relations in the country. Thank God, every investor is important to us," he pointed out at a Valdai Discussion Club event on sanctions against Russia.
"Then again, we are in no mood for a war of values or a geopolitical war. We just want others to respect us and take our security and sovereign development interests into account. That’s all. If this is done, we will continue to make agreements as equal partners," the diplomat said.
Birichevsky emphasized that Russia had been able to build strong political, economic and cultural ties with the countries of the Global South and those ties did not depend on the situation. "This is the foundation that the new world will be built upon. I believe that at some point, the West will also come to the conclusion that we all should cooperate as equals instead of imposing solutions and values on each other; we should cooperate in areas where it is pragmatically beneficial, without looking at politics," the Russian diplomat concluded.