Medvedev Said that New U.S. Sanctions against Russia would be “Declaration of Economic War”

The United States announced a new round of sanctions on Wednesday targeting Russia. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that further strengthening of economic sanctions against Russia could be regarded as “declaration of economic war” by the United States. On Wednesday, the U.S. announced the imposition of new tough sanctions against Russia, concluding that Moscow was responsible for poisoning a former Russian spy and his daughter in the UK this March. The sanctions announced on Wednesday come into force on August 22. They affect the licenses issued by the US authorities to export goods of great importance to national security, for example, electronics. The state department says “more draconian” sanctions will follow within 90 days if Russia fails to give reliable assurances that it will no longer use chemical and biological weapons. However, speaking at a meeting with the staff of the Kronotsky state reserve, Medvedev stressed that we are talking about the economic war, which we will respond with economic, political, or other methods. “I would not like to comment on talks about future sanctions, but I can say one thing: if some ban on banks’ operations or on the use of one or another currency follows, it would be possible to clearly call it a declaration of economic war. And it would be necessary, it would be needed to react to this war economically, politically or if needed by other means. And our American friends need to understand this”, said Medvedev. Medvedev noted that “nevertheless Western partners argue that the Russians are bad and pursuing the wrong policy, that the Russian government should change its position on a number of issues, but substantially this is a limitation of our economic power”. The head of the Russian government added that sanctions were imposed on Russia several times during the Soviet period. “Our country has existed in the last hundred years under conditions of constant sanctions pressure. What is this for? To kick Russia out of the powerful competitors on the international arena”, said the Prime Minister. Medvedev pointed out that Russia “developed well” at the beginning of the 20th century, “and despite all the difficulties of the Soviet period, there were periods of rapid development, and many did not like it”. In his opinion, some do not like such development now. “This does not particularly refer to those countries that are involved in the imposition of sanctions – largely the United States and a number of their allies. Nothing has changed since then”, Medvedev said. Voice of America