"This is worse than Cold War"

Relations between Moscow and the West are worse than in the Cold War era, because there were certain communication channels then, says Sergei Lavrov.

And there was no obsession with Russophobia, the top Russian diplomat remarked.

"I think, it's worse. Because during the Cold War there were channels of communication. And there was no obsession with Russophobia, which resembles genocide through sanctions," he told the BBC in an interview.

Lavrov "expressed the hope that people in the West, including those in power, were aware of how precarious this situation really is," TASS cited him as saying.

During the interview, the excerpts of which were published on Monday, Lavrov also denied US allegations that his country "interfered with evidence at the site of a suspected Syrian government chemical weapons attack" in Douma.

The Russian minister also said that a chemical attack did not take place. "What did take place was the staged thing," he said.

"I cannot be impolite with the heads of other states, but you quoted the leaders of France and the UK and US and, frankly speaking, all the evidence they quoted was based on media reports and social media," Lavrov said.