Lavrov Hopes Russian, US NGOs Still Can Cooperate Despite Russophobia

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Many Russian non-commercial organizations are interested in working with their US counterparts regardless of the anti-Russian rhetoric from the United States, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday.

“In regard to America: Regardless of the open confrontation from the US administration, regardless of its forced delivery of Russophobia, many non-governmental structures in Russia and the United States alike still have interest in cooperation, and we support this actively,” Lavrov said.

Russian-US relations began to deteriorate drastically when the region of Crimea decided to secede from Ukraine and reunify with Russia through a referendum in March 2014. Washington accused Moscow of "annexing" the region.

Relations between the superpowers continued to worsen with the escalating crisis in Ukraine, after Kiev forces launched a military operation against its own eastern regions in April 2014. Western nations accused Moscow of interfering in Ukraine's internal affairs and assisting eastern Ukraine's independence supporters.

Washington, alongside the European Union and a number of other countries, imposed several rounds of sanctions on Moscow targeting Russia's banking, energy and defense sectors, as well as a list of certain individuals.

Russia has repeatedly stressed that it is not involved in the Ukrainian conflict and urged for a peaceful resolution of the crisis through reconciliation talks. Moscow also believes that the US-led NATO incursion in Eastern Europe and the Baltic states poses a threat to Russia's security at its western borders.