Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation: Russia will not leave unanswered new US sanctions

Russia will not leave unanswered new US sanctions in case of introduction. This was announced on Saturday by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Ryabkov. What kind of response measures are in question, is not specified.

Ryabkov added that the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Sergei Lavrov, at a meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry, on Sunday in Rome, intends to discuss the issue of "anti -Russian sentiments" and "Washington's attempts to impose in Russia unacceptable decisions."

Earlier, the US Senate approved the bill "On Support for Freedom in Ukraine" , which gives the President of the country the right to provide military assistance to Ukraine in an amount of $ 350 million, as well as the expansion of sanctions against the energy and defense sectors of the Russian economy. A similar resolution was previously approved by the House of Congress.

The Senator of the International Affairs Committee Robert Menendez said that "this law is a direct message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who must change his calculations in relation to Ukraine and abandon the destructive path that he stood on."

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia was called the bill on support for freedom in Ukraine "openly confrontation." The official representative of the department, Alexander Lukashevich, said that "Moscow will not succumb to blackmail by the United States, will not be made by national interests."

Sanctions against a group of Russian officials and companies were introduced by the United States, EU countries and a number of other states in connection with the annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and the involvement of Moscow, as the West believes, in the escalation of the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Russia rejects charges against it.