MOSCOW, August 23. /TASS/. The European Union and NATO resort to outdated methods of forcing through "bloc solidarity" which have no place in the 21st century, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Hungary’s newspaper Magyar Nemzet published on Monday.
"We take notice that Budapest assumes certain obligations along with the membership in the EU and NATO which particularly relate to participating in multilateral sanctions against third countries even in cases when it runs counter to Hungary’s national interests among other things. It is our principled position that there is no place to these manifestations of enforcing ‘bloc solidarity’ in the 21st century. Moreover, sanctions are a useless instrument of politics, and they have no prospects against Russia," he said.
He recalled that the sanctions imposed by Brussels against Moscow in 2014 "more than halved the trade turnover volume" between the sides. It was $417.7 billion in 2013 and dropped to $192.2 billion in 2020. "It is not just Hungary that suffered but our other trade partners in Europe," Lavrov said. He also noted that the sanctions hurt younger EU members, while established EU countries even manage to benefit from the situation.