MOSCOW 

The purpose of sanctions against Russia is to marginalize the country and reduce its role in the international arena to zero, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday. 

Speaking in an interview with Russia's RT TV channel in Moscow, Lavrov recalled that the Western sanctions were never completely canceled even after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

"What we are seeing now in Ukraine is the quintessence of the Western strategic course, namely to marginalize Russia, to contain it, to put an end to Russia's development, as well as to reduce Russia's role to zero in world politics, economics, sports, art, trade, science, education," he said.

According to Lavrov, although the West links sanctions with the Ukrainian events in 2014, it started imposing restrictive measures long before that, which will continue in the future.

However, the sanctions made Russia stronger and destroyed the illusion that Russia can rely on the West, he continued, adding that an understanding came that the country can only rely on itself and those allies that will not leave it in difficult times.

"We are the champion in terms of the number of sanctions that have been imposed on the Russian Federation. More than 5,000 individual sanctions. This is almost twice as much as the number of sanctions imposed against North Korea and Iran," he noted.

Despite the current difficulties, provoked by the US attempt to make the world unipolar, where everyone "will dance to the tune of the strongest," Russia does not close its doors to the West and may resume the cooperation, bearing in mind that it is an unreliable partner, he said.

Lavrov said the West is carrying out an information war against Russia, replacing the facts with slogans and using methods of "information terrorism."

"We understood long ago there is no such thing as independent Western media. This is war. The methods of information terrorism are used in the war. There is no doubt about it," he said.

Speaking about the Russia-Ukraine war, the minister insisted that the Russian military captured documents by Ukraine's General Staff, confirming the preparation of a large-scale offensive in Donbas, arguing that Russia's military operation is aiming to protect the people of the rebel regions averted terrible bloodshed.

Lavrov warned that the arms deliveries to Ukraine from the West will be "the rightful target" for the Russian military.

He also said that under the contracts, the S-300 air defense systems cannot be sold or transferred to the third parties, which makes "illegal" its redeployment from some former Soviet countries to Ukraine.

Russia's goals in Ukraine are to move any threat coming from Ukraine's territory and to make the country's authorities cancel all legislation discriminatory to the Russian population of Ukraine, he said.

As for the Pentagon's alleged biolabs in Ukraine, Lavrov said Russia will insist that this issue be taken into consideration under the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological Weapons, as well as under the UN Security Council, as such activities pose a threat to international peace and security.

The minister added that the US opened over 300 biological laboratories -- many of them along the Russian border -- but the project in Ukraine may be the biggest.

Lavrov expressed hope that one day the relations between Russia and Ukraine will finally normalize, although he expects that the West will hinder the process.