Lavrov points to Russia gaining strength after Western sanctions are imposed

Russia has learned a lot since the imposition of anti-Russian Western sanctions and has become stronger. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said this in an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson published on December 6, when asked whether the lifting of sanctions against Russia could be a condition for an agreement on the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict.

"We have learned a lot since sanctions were imposed against us. They started under Barack Obama and continued in a big way under Donald Trump's first term. And under Joe Biden 's administration, they became absolutely unprecedented. But you know, "everything that doesn't kill us makes us stronger." They're never going to kill us. And that makes us stronger," Lavrov pointed out.

The minister noted that the more Russia lives under sanctions pressure, the more Russia relies on itself, develops mechanisms, platforms of cooperation with friendly countries "that do not mix economic interests and relations," including politics.

Earlier, on December 3, it was reported that the current US administration intends to impose new sanctions against Russia before resigning at the end of January.

Before that, on November 21, the United States took additional measures to restrict Russia's use of the international financial system. The United States imposed sanctions against the first deputy chairmen of the Bank of Russia Vladimir Chistyukhin and Dmitry Tulin. Gazprombank also fell under the sanctions.

On the same day, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that the Western sanctions will not lead to restrictions on Russia's foreign trade. According to him, all restrictions by Western countries first of all hit them. The next day, on November 22, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia was considering retaliatory measures to the U.S. sanctions against Gazprombank.

Western countries stepped up sanctions pressure on Russia after the start of the special operation to protect civilians in Donbass, which was announced on February 24, 2022.