MOSCOW, November 8. /TASS/. US attempts to exert pressure on Russia with sanctions are doomed to fail, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Thursday, commenting on Washington’s new sanctions against Moscow.
"We confirm our previously expressed rejection of the United States’ unilateral policy of sanctions in all forms. Naturally, attempts to make us change our resolute decision… by applying the instrument of sanctions and restrictions are doomed to fail," Ryabkov told TASS.
According to the senior diplomat, Russia will continue to develop Crimea’s economy, tourism, social sphere and other sectors.
"No pressure or attacks will affect this course," Ryabkov said.
"Those measures by the United States [sanctions, introduced on Thursday] are so irrelevant, baseless and ineffective in their essence that it would be counter-productive for us to waste time on analyzing them," he added. "Probably, later we will have a closer look at details of those decisions, but right now we have more important things to do."
Ryabkov went on to say that Russia remained committed to the course of normalizing relations with the United States, but Washington should demonstrate its readiness and abandon the policy of blackmail and pressure.
"We keep following the path of normalizing relations with the United States once they are ready, which implies that they should abandon their attempts of blackmail and pressure," the senior Russian diplomat told TASS.
US sanctions lists expanded
The Treasury Department said in a report on Thursday that the US authorities have expanded the sanctions list against Russia related to Ukraine and Crimea, adding three individuals and nine organizations to it.
The list includes Alexander Basov, who is linked with the Ministry of State Security of the Lugansk People's Republic, according to the US Treasury’s statement. The alleged link may concern the Deputy Minister of State Security of the republic, but this is not specified in the document. Two other individuals on the list are Andrey Sushko and Vladimir Zaritsky. The US Treasury provides no specific information about them.
The US Treasury added three sanatoriums located in Crimea Ay-Petri, Duilber and Miskhor. The sanctioned companies on the lists are Krymteploelektrotsentral, Garant-SV, Management Company for Infrastructure Projects, Yuzhny Project, the Mriya resort and the Ministry of State Security of the Lugansk People’s Republic.