"[...] A country must maintain good neighborly relations with others, and it should be part of international organizations, including the UN. I would like to make a note here that what may appear to be the most obvious statement actually carries significant political and diplomatic meaning and message. For instance, being part of the UN in the form of an internationally unrecognized territory, or in any other manner whereby a territory cannot become a full-fledged member of the UN, is not allowed according to these criteria," he said during a briefing at the press center of the Rossiya Segodnya media group, Sputnik’s parent company.
"There is the criterion we have mentioned repeatedly before Kazan as well, namely not participating in unilateral illegitimate sanctions against any of the BRICS member states. As for European countries: if we are talking about states that are part of the EU and NATO, they do not meet the criterion of non-application of unilateral sanctions," Ryabkov noted.
"[...] The task now falls to foreign policy department employees to discuss with potential partners whether they are willing to agree to this, whether they accept such a framing of the issue. We cannot abstractly discuss such important matters without having a clear understanding of how potential partners themselves perceive the developing situation," he said.