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Russia says US sanctions will not change anything

It is harming our relations inevitably but we will be working in the conditions that exist in the hope it will turn one day, Russia’s United Nations ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said.

Updated on: Aug 2, 2017, 22:42:35 IST
Reuters, United Nations | By
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US President Donald Trump’s signing into law new sanctions against Russia does not change anything “de facto”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in Moscow, Russia. (File)
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in Moscow, Russia. (File)

In response to a question from reporters about what steps Russia could take to retaliate, Peskov said: “What retaliatory measures? There is nothing new. Retaliatory measures were already taken”.

New US sanctions imposed on Russia are inevitably harming bilateral relations but will not change Russian policy, Russia’s United Nations ambassador Vassily Nebenzia also said on Wednesday.

“Some US officials were saying that this is a bill that might encourage Russia to cooperate with the United States; to me that’s a strange sort of encouragement,” he told reporters.

“Those who invented this bill, if they were thinking they might change our policy, they were wrong.”

“They should have known better, that we do not bend, we do not break,” he said. “It is harming our relations inevitably but we will be working in the conditions that exist in the hope it will turn one day.”

Last week, Russia ordered Washington to cut 755 of its 1,200 embassy and consular staff and said it was seizing two diplomatic properties, after U.S. lawmakers backed the new round of sanctions.

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