Russia will not ask either EU or USA to lift sanctions

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin said that Moscow would not ask either Europe or the United States to lift sanctions.

According to Vershinin, the sanctions that "the United States and its satellites" approved aim to put both the Russian economy and the lives of common Russian people in a very difficult position.

One has lost count of the sanctions, and all of them were approved to punish Russia for its sovereign political decisions, Sergei Vershinin said in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper.

Such actions will not force Moscow to change its political course, the Deputy Foreign Minister pointed out.

"We will not ask for these sanctions to be lifted. We will simply continue developing our economy and ability to develop independently, while relying on our friends and like-minded people,” he said.

The West is making attempts to break joint humanitarian, educational, cultural and sports efforts, the official said. At the same time, he expressed confidence that the West would not succeed in building such a blockade just for the contribution that Russia was making in the development of world culture and sport.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also said that the West had been waging a sanctions war against Moscow for years. The West has imposed sanctions against Russia in the field of finance, economy, sports, culture, science, education, humanitarian exchanges, she said.