MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has compared the Houthi actions in the Red Sea to anti-Russian sanctions.
"I can only confirm every major assessment made by my colleague and friend, and add that the impact from Houthi actions in the Red Sea on world trade is comparable to the effect the illegal Western sanctions against Russia have on the flow of goods between various countries," Lavrov said at a press conference after talks with Yemeni Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak.
"The same applies to the safety of routes: we remember how the West encouraged the Ukrainians to use the allegedly safe corridors designated at the time of the Black Sea Grain Initiative of the UN secretary general, which is now a sad memory. Of course, there has also been an impact by sharply complicated logistics of delivering goods from one point to another, and, as already mentioned, steeply increased insurance rates," Lavrov said.
"We have observed all of those phenomena, which do direct harm to world trade, long before the crisis broke out in the Red Sea because of Houthi attacks. For the past two years or so, the illegal aggressive actions of the West taken within the framework of the unprecedented sanctions campaign have had precisely the same effect," he said.