Moscow not aiming to secure revocation of western sanctions - Putin
MOSCOW. Nov 23 (Interfax) - Russia has no goal of getting Western sanctions lifted, President Vladimir Putin said.
"We are not setting ourselves the goal of securing the revocation of some restrictions, it was not we who introduced them so it is not for us to decide them. This is up to our partners in the U.S. and in Western Europe," Putin said.
He was commenting on a suggestion made by journalists that favorable rhetoric on Russia coming both from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and from the winners of French primaries signals the start of a new period in relations with the West and a chance of sanctions being lifted.
"But we have always called for normal relations, always said [...] that any restrictions in the sphere of trade, in the sphere of economic cooperation hurt everyone, the whole international economic order and harm all participants in international communication in this sphere. There is nothing good about it, we have always called for normalization," Putin said.
