"Unfortunately, the uneasy situation on our common continent remains a serious obstacle on the way of strengthening Russian-Portuguese cooperation," Russia’s top diplomat stressed.

TASS, November 24. The United States uses the crisis in the dialogue between Russia and the European Union for dangerous military activity near Russian borders, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an article published in the Portuguese newspaper Publico.

"The crisis in Ukraine - the result of the geopolitical games of the United States and its ideological followers in some countries, and also the blindness of the European Union’s bureaucracy have crushed the atmosphere of trust, which the responsible leaders of Russia and key European states had been working to create over many years," Lavrov stressed.

Moscow is seriously concerned that "Brussels has not only sacrificed its principles and values and shut its eyes to the armed coup in Kiev that overthrew the democratically elected president but has also followed Washington’s directive by joining the anti-Russia sanctions," the Russian foreign minister noted.

"What do we have now?" Lavrov said.

"The architecture of the Russia-EU dialogue has been seriously disrupted and European producers are sustaining multi-billion losses, the Kiev regime is conducting a war against its own people and a new conflict has emerged in Europe," Lavrov said.

"The United States, however, is not sustaining any losses," the Russian foreign minister stressed.

"Moreover, it is exploiting the situation for stepping up dangerous military activity near Russian borders, unleashing an arms race in our neighborhood where, as we all hoped, there is no room for a new ‘Cold War,’" Lavrov said.

The security of the peoples in Europe "is becoming hostage to the disruptive policy being conducted from the other side of the Ocean", the Russian foreign minister stressed.

Pointless confrontation

Moscow sees a growing number of those in Europe who understand that the confrontational policy towards Russia holds no prospects, Lavrov added.

"The tension in the relations between Russia and the West over the past few years, which costs international stability a lot, is not our choice. We continue standing for forming a common space of peace, equal and indivisible security and broad economic cooperation in the Euro-Atlantics and Eurasia that would take into account the interests of all the states without any exception - both the states inside and outside various integration associations," the Russian foreign minister stressed.

At the same time, Russia is pleased to note "the growing number of those in Europe who are aware that the confrontational course towards our country holds no prospects, those who are seeking to conduct pragmatic policy and do not wish to sacrifice the well-being of their citizens and the peaceful future of the common European home for the sake of narrow-minded interests and ambitions of extra-regional players," Lavrov stressed.

The Russian foreign minister said he hoped that "wisdom and simply common sense will finally take the upper hand" and the relations between Russia and the European Union and its member states "will be restored on the basis of true good neighborliness, honesty, predictability and openness.".