Western sanctions will not make Russia change its policies - senior diplomat

"There are several important and much-needed steps that the international community can take in this situation. The most important thing is not to look to the Russian side for those to blame for this situation, which is, unfortunately, being done, without any grounds or proof, without providing any facts, just because someone does not like modern Russia with its independent policy, its consistent course towards defending its national interests and protecting compatriots and its responsible attitude to the inviolability of international law. Some people in the modern world are not happy to see a Russia that does that," he said.

"If these policymakers are truly interested in stabilizing the situation, they should shift their attention to those who we call the party of war in Kiev and pressure them into fully carrying out the Minsk agreements, launching the constitutional reform, starting a normal dialogue with representatives of Donbass and into adopting a general sensible attitude towards the circumstances that led Ukraine to the current crisis," he said.

"The second thing that could be done is as follows. We have repeatedly talked about the illegitimacy of sanctions against Russia. We confirm that under no circumstances would we discuss with the authors of this policy and those who follow it the criteria for the lifting of any sanctions. But they should think about how flawed their own logic is. They should admit, at least for themselves if not publicly, that all their sanctions are leading to a result that is the opposite of what they have been counting on, namely that the sanctions would make Russia change its course. This is not only naive, it contradicts both political and common logic. Nobody makes concessions under pressure. All they are doing is staving off the prospect of beginning a normal political process by engaging in illegitimate activities and provoking other member of the international community into doing the same," Ryabkov said.

"The third thing one could say on the subject is that policymakers with anti-Russian views in the historic West should calculate what their countries could gain from normal cooperation with Russia and compare it with what they have today. There are too many real challenges and threats in the world, we see this confirmed every single say. These problems simply could not be solved without deep, real, concrete and sincere cooperation with Russia. When they try to infringe on us, they are acting against themselves. The logic of their behaviour is not clear. This reflects an extremely narrowed perception, artificially confined to misconceptions about what is happening in the world. It cannot be described otherwise," he said.

russialist.org