MOSCOW, October 18. /TASS/. Russia is not considering a military response to western sanctions against Moscow, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with Euronews TV Channel, adding that asymmetrical steps are possible.
"This is absolutely out of the question in the contemporary world. We are a responsible state and a permanent member of the UN Security Council," he said when asked whether Moscow could react to sanctions using military measures. "These issues (imposing retaliatory measures) fall within the terms of reference of the country’s supreme authority. These issues are within the competence of the country’s president," Medvedev added.
Russian PM did not specify how Moscow could respond to western restrictions. "There are various forms of response in today’s world, including, as I said, asymmetrical responses. This is not necessarily military in nature. It is not necessary to respond to economic threats or economic racket with adequate economic means. This is what it is," he noted.
Medvedev believes that "the tightening of the screws in the sanctions stand-off will end in nothing good." "Sanctions against the Soviet Union (although we are not the Soviet Union and although the Russian state has other values, we are, nevertheless, the legal successors to the Soviet Union) were announced 10 times during the 20th century," he said, asking a rhetorical question: "Did it change the Soviet Union's policy in any respect?"
As an example, Prime Minister mentioned China, against which sanctions were used, though it never changed the course followed by the country’s political leadership. "Sanctions are an absolutely counter-productive idea," Medvedev stressed.
"We understand that, for example, the extent of the integration, or mutual dependence of the Russian and US economies is insignificant. American businesses are not much affected by the sanctions that the United States has imposed on our country because the amount of trade is modest. But European businesses have been hit hard because the amount of trade is huge," he said.
According to Medvedev, the trade turnover with the United States is around $20 bln now. "This is nothing. The amount of trade with the European Union is much more significant, as the European Union accounts for 45% of our trade. This figure runs into the hundreds of billions of euros. I will just give you one example. After the sanctions were imposed, our trade with the European Union all but halved, plunging from 430 billion euros to 220-230 billion euros at some point. So my question is: what losses has Europe incurred? Europe lost jobs. It lost revenue. It lost confidence in developing even small regions which, in one way or another, were centred on trade with our country," PM said.
"This is why sanctions are a bad approach. Actually, we keep saying this, but we did not initiate them, and we are not the ones that can end them," he emphasized.
Medvedev suggests that "sanctions against the banking sector are, in fact, a declaration of trade war." "These are the hardest sanctions. But without a doubt, we will be able to overcome this kind of pressure," he said, adding that sanctions tend "to upset international order, including the international economic order."
"Currently there are trade wars - this is what they are, as a matter of fact - between the United States and China, between the United States and the European Union and between the United States and Iran. Some of the sanctions target our country. It begs the question: does the international trading system stand to gain from this? Have the countries become better off? Or are businesses feeling more comfortable?" Medvedev said. "Yes, some domestic policy objectives can be achieved in the short term (using sanctions)," he noted.