Russian Foreign Ministry expecting tighter sanctions irrespective of Donbas events
NIZHNY TAGIL. Sept 9 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia will have to live under sanctions for a long time, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said at the Russian Arms Expo 2015 in Nizhny Tagil on Wednesday.
"We think we should expect the sanctions regime to tighten in certain areas irrespective of what is happening in, say, Donbas, or somewhere else," Ryabkov said.
"The autonomous, independent course of Russia in international affairs, the determination to defend its sovereignty and the people's consolidation around the leadership is a thorn in the flesh of our opponents," he said.
"Clearly, the instrument of sanctions, which is actually the instrument of foreign political aggression against the Russian Federation, is much in demand in this situation," Ryabkov said.
"We should proceed from the premise that sanctions will last for a long time. We, at least the Russian Foreign Ministry, are under no illusion that the sanctions may be lifted or alleviated in the near future," the deputy minister said.
"The sanctions were imposed last year under the pretext of the events in Crimea and southeastern Ukraine. Generally speaking, that could have been done - in history there are no givens - under other circumstances," he said.
He pointed to "the extremely broad and still broadening illegal application of sanctions to individuals and legal entities." The Russian legislative authorities need to create "appropriate tools to answer our foes tit-for-tat," he said.
