MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - Moscow said on Thursday it wants constructive and pragmatic relations with the West.
"Russia does not seek any confrontation but seeks to preserve opportunities for dialogue and promote constructive, predictable agendas both in its bilateral relations with Western nations and in its activities in the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Council of Europe, and other multilateral structures," the Foreign Ministry said in a report on a meeting at he ministry on Thursday that focused on Russia's relations with leading Western countries.
"It was agreed that such interaction should follow pragmatic lines and be linked to the willingness of partners of Russia to respect the interests, political independence and independent role in the international arena of Russia and its allies," it said.
"Ukraine-centered developments have become a logical effect of systemic problems that accumulated since the times of the Cold War, problems whose main source were the efforts of the United States and its closer allies to preserve their domination in world affairs, slow down the objective process of emergence of a new polycentric democratic world order, and block unification trends in Europe based on equality and a balance of interests," the report said.
The meeting "stressed the special importance of the strengthening of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), Collective Security Treaty Organization and Commonwealth of Independent States, and of stepping up cooperation in the formats of BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Group of 20 and other associations and in dialogue formats in various parts of the world on the basis of respect for the interests of all participants, equality and mutual benefit," the ministry said.
"The importance was stressed of the work of identifying spheres of potential interaction between the EEU and European Union, promoting the initiative to create a common economic and cultural space from Lisbon to Vladivostok, encouraging direct contacts between parliaments, civil society groups and business communities, cultural ties, and contacts between individuals," it said.
The meeting insisted that "special attention be paid to celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the victory in World War II, and to attempts to rewrite its results, distort its history and consign to oblivion the joint fight of the victor powers to liberate Europe from Nazism," the report said.