MOSCOW, June 27 (Itar-Tass) —— Moscow will give a tough, but balanced reply to the Magnitsky Act adopted in the United States, Deputy head of the Russian Foreign Ministry Sergei Ryabkov said on Rossiya 24 television on Wednesday.
"The situation arouses big concern in Russia. The document adopted by the commission on international affairs of the Upper Chamber of the U.S. Congress runs contrary to a rather not bad spirit and content of our relations with the United States which developed in recent years. Obviously, the U.S. legislature wants very much to cut short a positive trend in our relations by contributing such serious irritants," Ryabkov said.
Moscow regrets, but does not dramatize the situation, he said. "We will go on work on a positive agenda as far as possible and try to strengthen the Russo-U.S. partnership on a mutually advantageous basis, reminding our U.S. partners of the principle of not interference into internal affairs of a different country. This is a fundamental principle of the international law to which we have to return," the diplomat said.
Commenting on Russia's possible reply to the Magnitsky Act, Ryabkov stressed that " the answer would follow. It will be a balanced answer which will not bring additional problems to our relations. But it will be a tough answer and not necessarily a symmetric one," the diplomat said.
There is time left for the advocates of the Magnitsky Act to revise the situation and think about the consequences, the Russian diplomat warned.