Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has assured him that lists of Russian officials on whom the U.S. wants to impose sanctions over the situation in Ukraine do not exist, adding that the statements on the possibility of such sanctions are threats.
“I have pointed it out to the secretary of state that tensions
continue to be fuelled and it has been announced that there are some
secret lists of Russian citizens who will be denied entry in the U.S. He
assured me that there are no such lists yet. There is just an order,
but that doesn’t change the situation, it’s still a threat,” he told
reporters after meeting with Kerry.
Lavrov said the decision to freeze the G8 activities and the activities of the NATO-Russia Council are also threats.
“We need these structures as much as our partners do, and we don’t
need them more than the world community, which is very interested in
normal dialogue between Russia and the West, without attempts and
ultimatums, without attempts to unilaterally demand that we change our
position, which our president has stated very clearly,” he said.
“By the way, this position is broadly understood in the world” he said.
In addition, Lavrov said that “there are many one-sided half-hysterical evaluations in the media.”
“I said again to John Kerry, who seems to understand that it doesn’t really help the flow of normal work,” the minister said.
“It’s impossible to work honestly under the threat of ultimatums and sanctions,” Lavrov said.
