The West is exerting pressure on the countries of Central Asia and is demanding from them to join the sanctions against Moscow, said the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov at a press conference in St. Petersburg.
According to the minister, the European Union, the United States and Japan are demanding that the countries of Central Asia abandon cooperation with Moscow, as, in their opinion, “Russia will eventually lose the war against the West,” and offered to take the winners’ side well in advance.
“In addition to such verbal influences, there is serious pressure with threats: you will lose our markets and the investments that we were going to make in your countries, do not dare to help Russia to bypass sanctions,” Lavrov said.
Lavrov noted that the governments of the Central Asian countries are forced to take into account such threats.
“We do not insist that all economic operators in each of the friendly countries went to say in the morning: “We are against anti-Russian sanctions.” It would be enough for Russia that none of them join the sanctions,” he stressed.
The minister drew attention to the fact that the Russian authorities, together with partners, "had been successful in finding new mechanisms and instruments of cooperation that would not depend on the whims of our Western colleagues."
