Interfax: Moscow warns U.S. against further sanctions, retaliation will follow – Ryabkov

MOSCOW. May 23 (Interfax) – If the United States imposes further sanctions against Russia, these will be followed by retaliation, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.

“We would like to warn the U.S. once again against making hasty decisions in this sphere. Regrettably, the danger remains of additional sanctions being imposed. What we have been watching over the past few weeks is essentially a continuous build-up of attempts to exert sanctions pressure on us, and not only over Ukraine, but with respect to Syria as well, the expansion of the so-called Magnitsky list – these are all links in the same chain,” Ryabkov told reporters in Moscow.

“Regrettably, the U.S. cannot understand one simple thing: sanctions are not working as a tool, Washington cannot achieve the goals it wants to reach with sanctions, but the damage being caused to the Moscow-Washington relationship is very serious. We did and will react further, including with concrete measures on our part,” Ryabkov said.

“It is time to abandon this vicious logic,” the deputy minister said. “If the U.S. thinks there are problems in any particular sphere and on any particular matter, they should be discussed through a dialogue, a search for a compromise, not with attempts to exert pressure – it won’t work with Russia,” the deputy minister said.