Russia on EU Sanctions to Turkey: 'We are Against Diplomacy Through These Methods'

Click to read the article in Turkish

Andrey Kelin, the Director of the Department of European Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, said that Russia condemns the European Union (EU) for imposing sanctions on Turkey.

"According to our principled position, sanctions can be imposed only by decision of the UN Security Council," he told Sputnik. He said that unilateral sanctions have become a "very popular tool," pointing out the US, which he said, "has sanctions in more than a thousand areas."

"Any sanctions that are being imposed unilaterally and that substitute the international law with an order based on rules invented by certain states and groups of states and implemented depending on the political situation. We are against pursuing diplomacy through these methods," Kelin added.

Russia will continue maintaining its friendly, business-oriented relations with Turkey, he said.

Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson of the ministry, said that they view unilateral sanctions as "unacceptable." Admitting that the sanctions become a factor in today's international relations, she said that they are "definitely not a tool of diplomacy" and should not be a "basis of international politics."

"We can not accept such a unilateral, illegal, aggressive pressure and policy that aims at promoting one's own interests," she said. (PT/VK)