Russia sees new U.S. sanctions as attempt to further complicate way to better bilateral relations - Ryabkov
MOSCOW. June 20 (Interfax) - Russia sees new U.S. sanctions against itself as an attempt to further complicate the way toward improving bilateral relations and rejects any sanction pressure, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in an interview with Interfax.
"We certainly reject any attempts at putting sanction pressure on us," Ryabkov said.
"We don't see any sense in these developments except the desire to further complicate the already extremely complicated way toward the improvement of relations. But this has been a U.S. choice all along," he said.
"We have to state with regret and disappointment that the incumbent U.S. administration's practical actions have been increasingly more at odds with its own statements, signals, and hints about desirability of more stable and close to normal relations with Russia," Ryabkov said.
"As is with the case of strikes upon an unmanned aerial vehicle of the Syrian Air Force, we believe the developments in this situation manifest absolute discrepancy between the policy goals declared by Washington and the actions it is pursuing," he said.
"In Syria, these strikes that I have mentioned in fact aid and abet terrorism. And the sanctions that have been applied supposedly in the interests of settling the situation in southeastern Ukraine play into the hands of forces in Kyiv that are absolutely not interested in any settlement, that is, they delay the settlement prospect. This discrepancy between the words and the deeds, between declarations and practical actions is worrying," he said.