Russia Regrets Expansion of US Sanctions, Works on Response

Moscow is already working on response measures after Washington has expanded sanctions against Russian citizens.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia expresses regret over the recent expansion of sanctions by Washington against the country’s officials, entities and individuals over the allegations of involvement in the Ukrainian crisis, and currently Moscow is developing its response to the restrictive measures, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Sputnik Tuesday.

“We regret this [the expansion of US sanctions]. And now, with the feeling of the repeatedly wasted opportunities to move toward the rapprochement of our bilateral relations, we start to work on our retaliatory measures,” Ryabkov said.

Earlier in the day, the US Department of the Treasury announced in a release that the sanctions were imposed against Special Presidential Representative for Cooperation with Organizations representing Russians Living Abroad Alexander Babakov, Russian Deputy Minister of Economic Development Sergei Nazarov, the private Russian military company PMC Wagner and its founder Dmitry Utkin, among others.

Russian companies and citizens will not suffer from extended US sanctions and these will not influence Moscow's polices, Ryabkov said.

"Those Russians who appeared in the [new sanctions] list today, of course, will not be harmed by US sanctions… They will not inflict any damage or harm on us. We will firmly and consistently continue our course," he said.

"We talked from the very beginning about Washington's extremely destructive policy as for sanctions against Russia, against our physical and legal entities, that they [sanctions] will not and cannot give effect sought by the United States… Moscow has repeatedly emphasized at various levels that we will judge the policy of the US administration toward Russia based on their actions, not rhetoric… The actions speak for themselves," Ryabkov added.

Washington, expanding sanctions against Russia, contradicts its own declared goals, Ryabkov said.

"We, as in the situation with the attacks by US forces on an aircraft and on a drone of the Syrian Armed Forces, say that this US policy contradicts the US declared goals," Ryabkov said.

Since 2014, relations between Russia and the European Union and the United States, deteriorated amid the crisis in Ukraine and Crimea's decision to rejoin Russia. Brussels, Washington and their allies introduced several rounds of sanctions against Russia on the pretext of its alleged involvement in the Ukrainian conflict, which Moscow has repeatedly denied. In response to the restrictive measures, Russia imposed a food embargo on some products originating in countries that have targeted it with sanctions.