Ryabkov on countering 'Kremlin list': response not to be completely mirrored, Russia not to harm itself
MOSCOW. Feb 5 (Interfax) - The political meaning of the 'Kremlin list' composed in the United States is Washington's wish to 'put pressure' on Russia, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the newspaper Izvestia in an interview on Monday.
"Hence, we are not trying to counter this situation in a completely mirrored way and will not do any harm to ourselves. There has been an effect of sociopolitical consolidation and economic concentration amid the ongoing U.S. attempts to use the sanctions as a tool of geopolitical struggle against contemporary Russia. We will take countermeasures if and when our president and administration assess the aggregate of facts and decide this is the right moment to act," Ryabkov said.
Moscow has suspended the implementation of three nuclear agreements with Washington and formally notified the United States that was done to retaliate against the unfriendly or actually hostile policy for Russia conducted by the previous U.S. administration, he said.
Izvestia asked Ryabkov about Moscow's ability to win the dispute over Russian diplomatic property in the United States in court. "The lawsuit is being prepared, and we have made much headway," Ryabkov said.
"If our expectations do not come true and the American court eventually disagrees with us and practically takes the side of the [U.S.] executive authorities, we will have additional arguments to declare a fundamental deviation of the United States, a subject of the international law, from the universal norms of behavior. I'd rather not assess our chances or anticipate the legal procedures, which will inevitably follow. Yet I can assure you that we have very seriously prepared for the upcoming period," Ryabkov said.