MINSK. April 4 (Interfax) - The West cannot isolate Russia, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Director Sergei Naryskin said.
"We can see the huge pressure imposed by the United States on our partners and allies, on countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Yet they are not succeeding, I mean they are failing to create a blockade around Russia," the Belarusian state-run news agency BelTA quoted Naryshkin as telling journalists in Minsk on Tuesday.
"I would say that such actions by the United States are a flagrant violation of the basic, fundamental norms of international law, because, by doing this, Washington is trying rather impudently to interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign states as they determine their domestic and foreign policy," Naryshkin said.
He said that in his opinion, this kind of Western policy may only be effective in the medium term with regards to small states in the Western sphere of influence.
"Speaking of countries with a strategic depth, this U.S. policy is futile, and it is even more futile with regards to interstate associations, such as the Union State of Belarus and Russia, the CSTO, the EAEU, and others," Naryshkin said.