Russia will give a “strong” response to US sanctions against Moscow over the latter’s Ukraine steps, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
“There should be no doubt – the sanctions will be given a strong response, not necessarily symmetrical, but verified and sensitive for the American side,” state news agency TASS cited the ministry as saying.
US President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday the “first tranche” of sanctions against Russia for what he described as “the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
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This came after Russia’s parliament approved President Vladimir Putin’s request to use military force outside the country, formalizing the deployment of Russian troops to separatist regions in eastern Ukraine, a day after he recognized their independence.
The Russian ministry said: “Despite the obvious futility of the efforts made over the years to hinder the development of our economy, the US is once again reflexively grasping at restrictive instruments that are ineffective and counterproductive from the point of view of American interests.”
“Sanctions pressure is not capable of affecting our determination to firmly defend our interests,” the ministry added, describing the American sanctions as a stereotypical move “of a unipolar world with a false conviction that the US is still entitled and can impose its own rules of the world order on everyone.”
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