I had a meeting with the President of the Republic of Tajikistan, Emomalii Rahmon. We discussed key areas of Russian-Tajik alliance and strategic partnership in light of the tasks, which were coordinated at the last meetings between our presidents in 2012 in Dushanbe, in August 2013 in Moscow and this February in Sochi. Everybody recognises that the tasks are being implemented effectively. The President of Tajikistan greatly appreciated the work of the Intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation, and activity on the implementation of the agreements in military, economic and humanitarian areas.

Of course, we have to devote a lot of effort to implement what the presidents have agreed about. Today we agreed on the main landmarks of this work, including the forthcoming contacts at level of heads of respective agencies and the conduct of a session of the Intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation by the end of this year. Additional steps in the migration area have been set, which should put everything on a firm legal ground, which will be comfortable for Tajik nationals in their labour activities, will ensure their social protection and prevent their rights from being violated.

We devoted special attention to regional problems, including in light of the preparations for the SCO summit in Dushanbe this September. It seems that the situation in Afghanistan and around it will be in the centre of attention of the leaders, when they gather here to discuss current problems. We want the SCO to play an important and initiative role in the set-up of a political dialogue on the problems related to Afghanistan, taking into consideration that Afghanistan and all its neighbours participate in the work of the SCO either as members or as observers. Taking into consideration all the SCO mechanisms, we are convinced that this arena is optimum for the consideration, as I have already said, of political aspects of the Afghan situation. Of course, we do not want to get involved into the military aspects of the events in this country. This is out of the question.

Today, during my negotiations with the Foreign Minister, Sirodjidin Aslov, we confirmed our course to the coordination of our foreign policy activity within the CSTO, SCO, CIS, UN, OSCE and in other international formats, and the President of Tajikistan, Emomalii Rahmon, approved this. It was also confirmed that the decisions, which were adopted within the framework of the CSTO to assist Tajikistan in the reinforcement of the Tajik-Afghan border, should be fully implemented, and Russia will use its influence in the CSTO to achieve this goal as soon as possible according to the decisions by the presidents of member states of this Organisation.

Question: What will Russia's reaction be to another wave of sanctions from the European Union?

Sergey Lavrov: Some people try to say that Russia will not respond in any way. I have already noted that we certainly do not feel happy about this. We are not going to pretend that nothing is happening. We will make conclusions. We will not attempt to respond "to an insult by an insult", as we say. In politics, one should be guided by common sense rather than insults. At the same time, common sense has nothing to do with these events. The new sanctions were announced on the day, when at the request of our western partners and Ukraine OSCE observers were deployed in the checkpoints controlled by the militia in Ukraine on the Russian-Ukrainian border, on its Russian side. They asked for this for a long time, as we sent such an invitation long ago. This issue could not be resolved for two weeks because of the position of the United States and Ukraine in the OSCE. It has finally been settled, and on the day, when at the request of our western partners the OSCE observers were actually deployed, they announce sanctions. This happens on the same day, when these observers and many mass media representatives could see with their own eyes how Ukraine shot at the Russian territory, in particular, the Gukovo village and checkpoint, when new threats were created for Russian nationals, on the same day, when a stream of Ukrainian refugees keeps moving to our territory, who are escaping from the military actions, including those in the Malaysian Airlines Boeing crash, when violence generally continued, primarily by the Ukrainian army in gross violation of the UNSC resolution. These sanctions were announced on the same day, when the forthcoming meeting between the Ukrainian parties through mediation of Russia and the OSCE in Minsk was announced. These sanctions were announced under the pretext that Russia must change its policy. Against the backdrop of everything, which I have just listed, – what do our partners want to achieve? We cannot get an intelligible answer to this question from them. Therefore, when politicians, who must be serious, are guided by some insults in their practical actions, yet more so that these insults seem to be personal, this make no compliment to them.

We will analyse the situation. We know our interests and will firmly protect them using all the means we have in accordance with international law.