The “unprecedented” restrictions imposed on Russia have only made it stronger, the Foreign Minister has said
The sanctions imposed by the collective West in the wake of the escalation of the Ukrainian conflict – and before it – have only made the country “stronger” and more self-sufficient, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has told US journalist Tucker Carlson.
Asked whether the lifting of the sanctions would be among terms discussed in potential negotiations to end the Ukrainian conflict, Lavrov signaled that was apparently not the case. The top diplomat, however, did not explicitly reject such a prospect.
“I would say probably many people in Russia would like to make it a condition. But the more we live under sanctions, the more we understand that it is better to rely on yourself, and to develop mechanisms, platforms for cooperation with ‘normal’ countries who are not unfriendly to you, and don’t mix economic interests and policies, and especially politics,” Lavrov explained.
The country has learned “a lot after the sanctions started,” Lavrov said, noting the West began imposing its restrictions long before February 2022.
“The sanctions started under President Obama. They continued in a very big way under the first term of Donald Trump. And these sanctions under the Biden administration are absolutely unprecedented,” he said.
Ultimately, the restrictions have only made Russia more resilient and self-sufficient, Lavrov explained. “But what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, you know. They would never kill us, so they are making us stronger,” he said.
The minister rejected the assertion that it was the sanctions that had ultimately driven Russia to the East, stating the turn was triggered by the attitude to the country of the West itself and its refusal to recognize the country’s interests.
“It started after the demise of the Soviet Union. There was euphoria, we are now part of the ‘liberal world’, democratic world, ‘end of history’. But very soon it became clear to most Russians that in the 1990s we were treated as, at best, a junior partner, maybe not even as a partner, but as a place where the West can organize things like it wants, striking deals with oligarchs, buying resources and assets,” Lavrov recalled.
