Russia’s Ministry of International Affairs mentioned late on Tuesday that new sanctions imposed by america had been proof of a “hostile anti-Russian lunge” and mentioned it might retaliate to what it described as one other blow to U.S.-Russia ties.
In U.S. President Joe Biden’s most direct problem but to the Kremlin, america on Tuesday imposed sanctions to punish Russia for what it described as Moscow’s try and poison opposition politician Alexei Navalny with a nerve agent final yr.
Learn extra:
U.S. sanctions Russia over Alexei Navalny poisoning, jailing
Navalny, 44, fell ailing on a flight in Siberia in August and was airlifted to Germany, the place docs concluded he had been poisoned with a nerve agent. The Kremlin has denied any function in his sickness and mentioned it has seen no proof he was poisoned. Washington on Tuesday imposed sanctions in opposition to seven senior Russian officers and on 14 entities.
“All that is simply an excuse to proceed overt interference in our inside affairs,” Maria Zakharova, a Russian international ministry spokeswoman, mentioned in a press release.
“We don’t intend to place up with this. We’ll reply based mostly on the precept of reciprocity, however not essentially symmetrically.”
Russian International Minister Sergei Lavrov mentioned on Tuesday that Moscow would reply in form to any new U.S. sanctions, whereas Russia’s envoy to the European Union additionally promised a response to EU sanctions on 4 senior Russian officers.
Zakharova mentioned the U.S. was free to decide on whether or not it needed “equal dialogue” with Russia on an affordable foundation, however mentioned Moscow would pay no consideration to any sanctions, which she mentioned had failed of their goals prior to now and would achieve this once more now.
“Regardless of America’s ‘sanctions dependancy’, we’ll proceed to constantly and decisively defend our nationwide pursuits, rebuffing any aggression. We urge our colleagues to not play with hearth,” mentioned Zakharova.
(Reporting by Anton Kolodyazhnyy; Writing by Alexander Marrow; Enhancing by Andrew Osborn)
