Russia not asking Europe to lift sanctions, ready to resume cooperation – Lavrov

Russia will be prepared to resume cooperation with European countries via all channels without any preconditions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday. He made the statement after talks with his Portuguese counterpart, Augusto Santos Silva, TASS reports. Moscow appreciated that many in the EU were aware of how harmful the current state of affairs in relations with Russia was and “pressed for putting an end to this state of affairs,” the top Russian diplomat said. He noted that Moscow won’t hold talks on the terms of lifting anti-Russian sanctions. “We never ask the European Union or other countries, which joined sanctions, to lift these sanctions, and we won’t hold any talks on the conditions of lifting the sanctions,” Lavrov said. He added that Moscow is ready to cooperate with its European partners and governments so that objective interests of business circles are taken into account.