Russian Foreign Ministry accuses West of building new “Iron Curtain”

A senior Russian diplomat has accused Western countries of erecting a new “Iron Curtain” against Russia, warning that the divide could further disrupt long-standing economic and political ties.

In an interview with Russia's state-run RIA Novosti, Artem Bulatov, Ambassador-at-Large for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said Western nations were deepening divisions across multiple areas, including trade, transport, and cultural exchanges.

“Westerners, with energy better spent elsewhere, are erecting a new ‘Iron Curtain,’ attempting to make irreversible the rupture they have provoked in the socio-economic, trade, transportation, interpersonal, cultural, and historical ties that have been built up in the region not just over years, but over centuries,” Bulatov said.

He added that NATO and the European Union had adopted what he described as a course of systematic confrontation with Russia.

According to Bulatov, the tensions have contributed to the weakening or collapse of several multilateral cooperation frameworks, including the Council of the Baltic Sea States and the Barents Euro-Arctic Council.

By Sabina Mammadli