Russia to retaliate against more EU bans: Diplomat
A Russian diplomat has warned that the Kremlin will take retaliatory measures in response to any extension of the European Union (EU) sanctions against Moscow.
"We are against a new twist of the sanctions spiral … and our reaction is politically sharp and founded," the unnamed diplomat told Russia's Interfax news agency on Wednesday.
The “technicalities” of Russia’s response will be specified later, he said, adding that Moscow always reciprocates sanctions and “will not turn the other cheek.”
The source further rejected the Kremlin’s alleged involvement in the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, accusing, instead, the government in Kiev of provoking violence in the country’s eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
The recent outbreak of fighting in eastern Ukraine “is being used by Russophobic circles in the EU as a pretext for accusing Russia of failure to meet its part of the Minsk commitments, although Russia is not a party to that conflict, and that has been clear for a long time," he added.
The remarks come as the latest round of clashes between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russia forces continue despite a ceasefire agreement reached between Ukraine’s warring sides in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk in February.
Earlier this week, the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) major industrialized countries expressed their readiness to impose additional sanctions on Moscow if the situation in Ukraine worsens.
Following a two-day G7 summit in Germany, French President Francois Hollande said measures against Russia would possibly be extended until the end of the year in an upcoming EU meeting.
Russia has been targeted by a series of sanctions over the past months by Brussels and Washington, which accuse Moscow of supporting pro-Russia forces in Ukraine's volatile east.
However, the Kremlin has rejected the claims and slapped bans on some food imports from the US, the EU, Norway, Australia and Canada in a tit-for-tat move. Moscow has also issued a blacklist of politicians from the 28-nation bloc, barring them from traveling to the Russian Federation.
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