![Anti-Russian rhetoric pre-dated Ukraine crisis, Moscow does not want spats – Lavrov Anti-Russian rhetoric pre-dated Ukraine crisis, Moscow does not want spats – Lavrov](https://mtic.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/lavrovvvvvvv-1.si_-310x168.jpg)
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the West started its “irrational attacks on Russia long before” this spring’s events in Ukraine, but insisted that Moscow is seeking to avoid “spiraling sanctions” with the EU and the US.
“We are not interested in confrontation, we are not interested in a sanctions spiral,” the minister said in a speech to an audience at the Lake Seliger youth camp in central Russia.