Russia appreciates India's stand against sanctions

New Delhi, Feb 27 (IANS) Amid Western threats to impose tougher sanctions on Russia over Ukraine, Moscow Friday appreciated India’s stand and said both countries stood for “non-interference in the domestic affairs” of other nations.

Sergey Naryshkin, Speaker of the Russian parliament, told an event here hosted by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) that Russia “appreciates India’s position that it is unacceptable to impose sanctions”.

Naryshkin also slammed the US for the sanctions, which he said were a “kind of economic pressure”.

He said the US was trying to blame Russia for the continuing violence in Ukraine when the “responsibility of the US is significant and evident to everyone”.

India has stated clearly “that it cannot be a party to any economic sanctions against Russia”. This was stated ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India in December last year.

Naryshkin also termed ties between India and Russia as “unique and characterised by friendship, mutual trust”.

Speaking later at the Russian Cultural Centre, he said -- in obvious reference to the US -- that India and Russia were for international law which is “not being accepted due to unipolarity, which is damaging to the international security system”.

He said both countries were for “non-interference in the domestic affairs of other countries”.

He said following Putin’s visit to India, the levels of cooperation between the two sides had risen at all levels

He said Russia supported India’s full-fledged membership to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

The next SCO summit will be held in the Russian city Ufa on July 9-10, 2015 along with the 7th BRICS Summit.

Russia will chair both SCO and BRICS groups of nations. Ufa is the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan, and the industrial, economic, scientific and cultural center of Russia.

The West, led by the US, has threatened tougher sanctions on Russia over the unrest in eastern Ukraine, alleging Moscow was actively supporting the pro-Russian rebels. Russia has denied the charge.

Naryshkin is here to attend the third session of the Russian-Indian parliamentary commission.