Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergey Vershinin, told Russian daily Izvestia that his country will not ask US and EU nations to lift sanctions being imposed on his country.

Vershinin said that pressure from the West and the rest of the world will not change Russia's course, adding that the US and the EU "have tried very hard" to use the sanctions as a means through which they aimed to force Moscow to "change the decisions that have been made".

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He further called EU countries the US' satellites, stressing that the sanctions aim to put Russia's economy "and ordinary Russians in a very difficult situation, doing this as a punishment for Russia's sovereign political decisions."

The sanctions, however, are ineffective, Vershinin said, and Russia will not ask for them to be lifted. Instead, Moscow will develop is "own economy and [its] ability to develop independently, relying on the friends and like-minded people that we have."

The Western world has unleashed a campaign of sanctions against Moscow, with restrictions and boycots encompassing everything from media outlets, banks, individuals, software companies to cats, and even a French Canadian fry dish.