The West planned its anti-Russian sanctions long ago and is unlikely to lift them, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with France’s TF1 television channel on Sunday, APA reports citing TASS.
“You said both sided are expelling diplomats. We have never expelled anyone. These sanctions, which are more like a hysteria (I would rather say an agony) were initiated by the West. The speed they were imposed with and their scope prove that they were not invented ‘overnight.’ They were planned quite a long ago. And these sanctions are unlikely to be lifted,” he said.
“At least the United States is saying, not publicly, but in contacts with its allies, that when the whole thing is over the sanctions will stay in place,” Lavrov noted.