Here are some more details from RFE/RL's news desk regarding Sergei Lavrov's somewhat controversial comments on Western sanctions:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that Western sanctions against Russia for its role in the Ukraine crisis are meant to trigger a regime change in Moscow.
Speaking on November 22 at a meeting of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policies in Moscow, Lavrov said, "They [the West] announce openly that the sanctions should be ruining the economy and raising people's protests."
He added, "The West demonstrates clearly they do not want to push for changes in the policies [on Ukraine], but they want to press for a change of the regime [in Moscow]."
Relations between Russia and the West have deteriorated amid the Ukrainian crisis, as the United States and the European Union imposed economic sanctions against Russia, and Moscow responded with a ban on food imports from countries that sanctioned it.
(TASS, AP)