When asked whether Russia would respond to Canadian sanctions against Russia, Peskov answered in the affirmative.
"We will", he said, adding that these sanctions were illegal.
Earlier in the day, Canada imposed sanctions on nine senior Russian officials in line with similar measures taken earlier by the United States and the European Union over the case of opposition blogger Alexey Navalny.
Those targeted by the Canadian sanctions are First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Sergei Kiriyenko, Presidential Policy Directorate Chief Andrei Yarin, Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Aleksandr Bortnikov, Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov, National Guard chief Viktor Zolotov, Federal Penitentiary Service head Alexander Kalashnikov, Presidential Envoy of the Siberian Federal District Sergei Menyaylo, Deputy Ministers of Defense Aleksey Krivoruchko and Deputy Minister of Defense Pavel Popov.
Navalny is currently serving a two-and-a-half-year jail term for repeatedly violating the terms of his probation. In 2014, Navalny and his brother Oleg were indicted on charges of embezzlement in dealings with the Russian subsidiary of French cosmetics company Yves Rocher. At the time, Navalny received a three-and-a-half-year suspended sentence, with one of the conditions being that he check in with the police in person at least twice a month.
In 2019, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Navalny's house arrest breached several provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights but declined to recognise the case as politically motivated.
The Russian Foreign Ministry previously advised foreign politicians commenting on the Navalny situation to respect international law as well as pay attention to issues in their countries.
