File photo: Sergei Lavrov
(Picture: REUTERS)Russia will focus on deepening ties with China, its foreign minister has said, saying Western countries had practised “Russophobia” since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking at a question and answer session, Sergei Lavrov said Russia was working to replace goods imported from Western countries and would only rely on countries which do not “dance to some other piper’s music”.
“If they (the West) want to offer something in terms of resuming relations, then we will seriously consider whether we will need it or not," Mr Lavrov said, according to a transcript on the foreign ministry’s website.
“We must cease being dependent in any way on supplies of absolutely everything from the West for ensuring the development of critically important sectors for security, the economy or our homeland’s social sphere”.
The senior Kremlin official said Moscow’s aim was to develop ties with China.
“Now that the West has taken a ‘dictator’s position’, our economic ties with China will grow even faster," Mr Lavrov said.
"In addition to direct revenue for the state budget, this is a chance to develop (Russia’s) far east and eastern Siberia."
China, he said, had information and communications technologies "that are in no way inferior to the West. A great deal here will ensure mutual benefits".
Western countries, including the US and Britain, have accused Russia of spreading disinformation online and attempting to manipulate public opinion about it.
Britain’s deputy ambassador James Roscoe told a UN Security Council meeting on Monday that Russia has conducted cyber-attacks and used “an online troll factory to spread disinformation and manipulate public opinion about their war”.
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the Russian government “intimidate and arrest journalists for reporting the truth about its invasion.”
But Russia’s representative, Vassily Nebenzia accused western countries of building "a cyber-totalitarianism" and fabricating stories of Russian war-crimes against civilians in Bucha, near Kyiv.
Mr Roscoe was among those pointing out that satellite images proved bodies of civilians were there for several weeks when Russia controlled Bucha.
