MOSCOW, July 29. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, No. 1 on the United Russia party’s Duma candidate list for the September election, told TASS Director General Andrey Kondrashov in an interview that it's imperative Russia stay independent, free from external influence.

Commenting on what Russia’s national interests in the international arena are rooted in, the top diplomat said: "In us being an independent power, and an independent civilization so our borders can be safely protected." "So nobody can even think of trying to advise us on how to live here in Russia. And so all Russian ethnicities can continue to have the constitutional rights to education, preservation of their culture, traditions and religious beliefs," he added.

According to Lavrov, as an independent power, Russia is interested in cooperation with the two other major powers, China and India, as equals. "These large players will certainly join us in defending justice in the hope that the West, and Europe in particular, too will one day come to their senses and be ready to get integrated into new systems of relations as equals fair and square," he argued. "The West is not yet ready for that, and the United States is absolutely not ready for that either," he concluded.