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© Reuters / Sergei KarpukhinSergei Lavrov, one of very few voices in a political position on the world stage to call the U.S.'s actions for what they are.
The United States is seeking to take advantage of the crisis in Ukraine to break economic ties between the European Union and Russia and impose supplies of its natural gas on Europe at prices significantly higher than the Russian ones, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"America wants to take advantage of the current situation in order to economically tear Europe off from Russia and get as favorable conditions as possible in the context of the ongoing negotiations on concluding the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership agreement," Lavrov said in an interview shown on the TVC television channel on Saturday.

Negotiations on the matter have lasted for years, and the Europeans have persistently defended their interests, believing that Washington sought to gain unjust benefits for itself in concluding this agreement, he said.

"However, these efforts have been stepped up now, including through the attempt to enforce supplies of U.S. liquefied gas to Europe at prices that cannot be competitive compared to the prices for Russian gas," Lavrov said.

At the same time, the Russian foreign minister admitted that, along with the U.S.' economic interest in fuelling the crisis in Ukraine, Washington also has some geopolitical plans.

Lavrov suggested that policymakers in Europe are extremely impartial ideologically at the moment.

Nevertheless, "this cannot last long, because reasonable voices have already been heard within the European Union, pointing out that an absolutely paradoxical situation has taken shape, as the EU decided to instruct the Committee of Permanent Representatives in Brussels to prepare a new set of sanctions exactly on the day when the peace agreements were signed in Minsk on September 5," he said.