Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that a new “iron curtain” was descending between Russia and the West after Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.
“As far as an iron curtain is concerned, essentially it is already descending,” Lavrov told reporters.
“They should just be careful not to pinch anything,” he quipped.
“The process has begun,” he said after talks with his counterpart from Belarus.
Lavrov said Russia has not had any relations with the European Union since 2014, when Moscow annexed the peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine following a popular uprising in Kyiv.
He said Moscow would not trust Washington and Brussels “from now on”.
“The EU is not at all interested in understanding our interests,” Lavrov added.
“It is interested in what has been decided in Brussels. And what has been decided in Washington has been decided in Brussels.”
After President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, the West has slapped Russia with several rounds of unprecedented sanctions.
