Russia will give ‘inevitable’ response to new US sanctions: Moscow

The Kremlin says there will be an “inevitable” response to a fresh round of sanctions imposed by the United States against Russia, as a result of which Moscow has summoned the American ambassador in protest at the provocative move.

“A response to sanctions is inevitable,” said Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Thursday.

Her remarks came a few hours after Washington announced economic sanctions against Russia and the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats in retaliation for what it alleged as election interference, a massive cyber-attack, and other hostile activity.

“The United States is not ready to come to terms with the objective reality that there is a multipolar world that excludes American hegemony,” Zakharova said in televised remarks.

She said Moscow had repeatedly warned Washington about “the consequences of its hostile steps, which dangerously increase the degree of confrontation between our countries.”

Under the new sanctions, the US Treasury Department will block American financial institutions from purchasing bonds from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation, or the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation after June 14 and from lending funds to those institutions.

The measures are part of an executive order signed by US President Joe Biden that also leaves open the possibility for the White House to expand the sanctions on Russian sovereign debt.

Washington has also announced plans to expel 10 personnel from the Russian diplomatic mission in Washington, alleging that some of them are representatives of Russian intelligence services.

Moreover, Washington is imposing sanctions on six Russian technology companies that it claims work with Russian intelligence operations, as well as 32 individuals involved in Russia’s purported efforts to influence the 2020 election in favor of Donald Trump, the Republican candidate who lost to Biden.

Moscow has already rejected, in the strongest terms, the allegations.

“Washington must realize that it will have to pay for the degradation of bilateral relations,” Zakharova warned on Thursday, stressing, “The responsibility for what is happening lies entirely with the United States.”

Bilateral relations have been in a free fall since 2014 when the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea rejoined Russia following a referendum. More than 90 percent of participants in the referendum voted in favor of unification. The US, the European Union, and Ukraine claim that Russia has annexed the region. Moscow strongly rejects the allegation.

Kiev and its Western allies, including the US, accuse Moscow of having a hand in the persisting and deadly crisis in Ukraine’s eastern regions. Moscow denies the allegation.

In the past six years or so, the US has imposed waves of sanctions against Russia, including over the alleged hacking of its 2016 presidential elections and the recent jailing of pro-Western blogger Alexei Navalny.

In the past few weeks, Washington and its NATO allies have been alarmed by Russia’s troop deployment near Ukraine, which the alliance claims is Moscow’s biggest buildup since 2014.

Moscow says the military buildup — as part of a three-week snap military drill to test combat readiness — poses no threat to any country and is for defensive purposes.

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