Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Western powers encroaching on Kremlin’s turf with stance on Ukraine. UPI Geopolitical tensions over Ukraine are a result of Western efforts to preserve long-standing regional divisions, the Russian foreign minister said Wednesday. Western powers enacted tough economic sanctions on Russian energy companies in response to the Kremlin’s policies regarding the former Soviet republic of Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it was the West that was out of step with the region . “The Ukrainian crisis is a direct consequence of the attempts of our Western colleagues again to preserve and move to the east the dividing lines in the Euro-Atlantic area,” he said. Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula of Ukraine in the aftermath of political upheaval that follows Ukraine’s pivot toward the European Union. Pro-Russian separatists have jockeyed for more autonomy in eastern Ukraine since then. The crisis has spilled over […]