Updated 9:01 p.m. Moscow Time
MOSCOW, September 21 (RIA Novosti) - The latest economic sanctions against Russia, imposed by the West, look cynical due to the fact that the Minsk agreements on Ukraine crisis have led to a ceasefire, the Head of Russia's Presidential Administration told the Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper in an interview released Sunday.
"Of course, they [economic sanctions] do not make us happy and they do damage [us], but it is clear that the sanctions harm our partners, meaning those, who declare them, as well, and the latest series of the so-called sectoral sanctions, seems especially cynical, as for me," Ivanov said.
The official added that the new sanctions were introduced when a ceasefire agreement was finally reached, bringing a hope for peace in Ukraine.
Sergei Ivanov also spoke out on the Western media's stance on Russian role in the Ukrainian conflict.
"It makes me sick when the Western press writes 'All civilized world condemn Russia.' A significant part of the civilized world is located geographically outside North America and Western Europe. And this huge part of the world remains open for us," he said.
Washington and Brussels have introduced several rounds of economic sanctions against Moscow over its alleged role in the Ukrainian internal conflict. The latest round of restrictions, adopted September 12, in particular, complicated the access to Western capital markets for Russian economy's oil, banking and defense sectors.
