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RIA Novosti
The Minister of foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov said that Russia has no Imperial ambitions, and especially the plans to recreate the Soviet Union.
“The allegations of “neo-Imperial” ambitions, especially about the plans for the restoration of the USSR belong to the genre of science fiction and not worthy of serious discussion,” he said in an interview with the magazine “international life”.
The Minister stressed that Russia always was respectful to the peoples of the former Soviet republics to opt for independence. “Cooperate with them in a variety of formats exclusively on the principles of equality and respect of interests each other” — he said.
Lavrov reminded that Russia has a serious assistance to some countries in the former Soviet Union, particularly Central Asian States.
“For almost ten years Russia has provided Central Asian States with assistance in the amount of 6.7 billion. To grant financial assistance on a bilateral basis amounted to more than $ 4 billion; by the UN – more than $ 570 million; by the world Bank and other agencies more than $ 1.3 billion; under the EAEC (Russia’s contribution to Eurasian Fund for stabilization and development) – 592,3 over a million dollars,” he said.
In addition, Russia remains an important participant in international efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to the needy countries of Central Asia. “The amount of funding allocated to our country, to the Foundation of the world food programme of the UN to the needs of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in 2013-2016 amounted to 65 million dollars”, — said Lavrov.