Top Russian diplomat says West built wall in relations with Moscow

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday that the West "built a wall" in relations with Moscow.

Speaking at the Primakov Readings forum in Moscow, Lavrov said Russia will be ready for a serious dialogue with the West when "far-sighted people" come to the leadership there.

"The West has stopped cooperating with us, by and large, built the wall, and we just work with those who are ready for it," he said.

Lavrov called the current situation "a tragedy" for Western world order system, which was based on the principles of globalization, which, according to him, "completely discredited itself as a non-negotiable system that is unable to respect and preserve its own principles and mechanisms imposed on everyone else."

He also said the West is trying to use the UN "blindly," deceiving the member-countries to adopt anti-Russian resolutions under the pretext of "non-approval" of Moscow's actions in Ukraine, and attempting to seize frozen Russian assets.

"As you can see, battles are unfolding almost daily at the UN, and there, I am convinced, we need to persistently present all those facts, of which there are a huge number, which characterize the hypocrisy of the West and the criminal nature of the Kyiv regime and those who support it and intrigues against our country, and Belarus already," he said.

Lavrov noted that the West, even its "reliable partners," is trying to turn against Russia, and that this has "some kind of psychological impact" on several countries which "may succumb" to Washington.

"It's their choice. But in the long term, even in the medium term, this choice will be a losing one for economic development, for one's own sovereignty," he stressed.