
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday the West's efforts to "isolate" his country had completely failed and Moscow was building stronger relations with countries in Africa, the Middle East, the Asia-Pacific and elsewhere.
"Today we can affirm that the West's plans to isolate Russia by surrounding us with a sanitary cordon have been a fiasco," Lavrov told Russian diplomats at an event at his ministry after returning from a nearly week-long tour of Africa.