The West should understand that such a huge country as Russia will always have its own national interests and it will defend them in the international arena, the chairwoman of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko said in an interview with Russia Today.
"Relations between Russia and the West have a longstanding history that have never been easy. But they haven't always led to confrontation. The current tension is so high. I don't think that the reasons for this should be in the so-called deep civilization differences. In my opinion, there are no such differences. Taking into account ethnic, linguistic, religious, cultural peculiarities, Russia will continue to be a limited part of European civilization, European economic, political, cultural areas. Our fundamental positions have common roots,'' she stressed.
The problem is that the West saw Russia's defeat after the collapse of the USSR, and tried to send it to the margins of world politics and history. "It's certainly a big mistake by the West. It is even sadder that Washington and Brussels don't want to admit this error and resist it," Valentina Matviyenko said.
