EU seeks to intensify containment policy against Russia - Lavrov

The European Union is strengthening its policy aimed at containing Russia through continuous attempts to interfere in Russia’s domestic affairs and piling up baseless accusations against Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper, Eurasia Diary reports citing Tass.

"The European Union’s policy to contain Russia is intensifying. Overt attempts to interfere in our country’s domestic affairs continue, particularly in the case of Alexey Navalny for instance. Unilateral sanctions against Russian individuals and entities are widening, and baseless allegations are being hurled against us," Lavrov emphasized.

He pointed to the principles for relations with Russia that the EU had announced a while ago. "The need to contain our country has been set as a priority, while cooperation has been limited to areas that interest the EU. The question is does Brussels really expect to break the deadlock in relations by conducting this sort of confrontational scheme?" the Russian top diplomat noted.

Lavrov stressed that the European Union had destroyed the architecture of cooperation with Russia." "In 2014, Brussels caved to the US pressure - which is what the Americans admitted openly back then - and destroyed the architecture of interaction, which took two decades to establish," he explained. "It was not our choice," Lavrov pointed out, adding: "Moreover, we have always tried to encourage the European Union to build mutually beneficial cooperation in the areas where our interests coincide. Unfortunately, European bureaucrats just shelved many of our initiatives."