Kremlin Considers it Premature to Talk about Counter-Sanctions and Hopes for the Dialogue with Washington

The Kremlin considers it premature to talk about the possibility of introducing counter-sanctions in response to the measures against the Russian Federation announced just recently by Washington in connection with the Skripal case and keeps hope alive of building constructive relations with American partners, spokesperson for Russian President Dmitry Peskov told journalists. Wednesday night Washington reported that by the end of August it would impose new sanctions on Russia, making sure that Moscow had used a nerve agent to poison the former Russian double agent and his daughter in the UK. A senior State Department official said he had notified Kremlin of the sanctions earlier on Wednesday. “We heard an official statement about the new so-called sanctions, and we heard some high-profile official to say about the possibility of some kind of restrictions, ... it would be wrong to talk about some kind of countermeasures until we understand the substance of the issue”, said Peskov. Kremlin refutes Russia’s involvement in the Skripal’s poisoning and considers it strongly unacceptable associating new restrictive measures with the Salisbury case. “Russia was outside the framework of the facts of chemical weapons using... we cannot even unequivocally talk about what and how it was used in Salisbury”, Peskov said. “Restrictions ... in our understanding are absolutely illegal and inadequate to international law”, he added. The Russian authorities, according to Peskov, keeps hope alive of building constructive relations with Washington. “These relations are not only in the interests of our two nations, but they are also in the interests of strategic security throughout the world. ... (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has repeatedly demonstrated his constructive attitude”, he said. U.S. Senator Rand Paul said on Wednesday that his visit to Moscow, during which he handed Trump’s letter to the Putin administration, was dedicated to establishing diplomatic contacts amidst sharp contradictions in bilateral relations. Talks on sanctions against Russia has become increasingly common in speeches by the U.S. congressmen and government members after the first time in a long period one-on-one Putin-Trump meeting in July, which both leaders described as fruitful. “The decisions taken by the American side are unfriendly, and they can hardly make the connection with the difficult but constructive atmosphere during the meeting of the two presidents”, Peskov said. “Undoubtedly, against the background of the continuing unpredictability of our overseas partners, we keep our financial system in proper condition”, he assured. The Russian financial market has been running risks of tightening sanctions for the second session. In particular, the dollar at the start of today’s trading reached the level of 66.73 rubles for the first time since the beginning of August 2016, the ruble to the euro decreased to the value of 77.33 for the first time since April this year. Source: Reuters