Russia-Ukraine war: Russia is ready to survive sanctions, says FM Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov affirmed that Moscow has the capability to survive the sanctions imposed by the West and other countries. According to him, Russia will rely on itself and its allies who are still supporting Moscow even after starting a military operation against Ukraine. "Russia will survive the sanctions. The main conclusion for us in the context of geopolitics is that there is no more illusion of relying on the West. We can rely only on ourselves and on our allies who would stay with us," Russian FM said on Monday.

It is worth mentioning Russia has been facing back-to-back sanctions imposed by the Western countries and the European Union-- both personally and economically. Since Russia started a war against its neighbouring country, the West and EU imposed sanctions against several top Russian leaders including President Vladimir Putin, FM Lavrov, Minister of Defence Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu and others. Also, several top brands like Apple, Sony, McDonald's, and others left the country in order to penalise Russia for its action against Kyiv. Earlier on March 15, at Antalya Diplomacy Forum 2022, Lavrov said that Russia will find a way to eliminate dependence on other countries. "We will make sure that we never again find ourselves that neither some Uncle Sam nor anybody else can make decisions aimed at destroying our economy. We will find a way to eliminate this dependence. We should have done it long ago," the Russian Foreign Affairs Minister said.

Australia joins West in imposing sanctions against Russia

Recently, the European Union unveiled a series of sanctions against Moscow. According to the announcement by President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the new sanctions will ensure to hit the Russian market severely. Among the actions announced on Saturday, Ursula stressed her speech on cutting the European countries from their dependency on Russia for energy such as oil and gas. During her speech, she highlighted how the countries are cutting ties with Russian banks and pointed out the continuous exit of famous brands from the Russian market. According to her, at first, the bloc will deny Russia the status of most-favoured-nation in EU markets. She said that the action will revoke important benefits that Russia enjoys as a WTO member. Stepping up its pressure on Russia, Australia following the footsteps of other Western countries announced a fresh set of sanctions on restricting 11 Russian banks and several government entities, including those responsible for managing Russian sovereign bonds, said the Australian Foreign Ministry on Friday. 

Image: AP