MOSCOW, October 11. /TASS/.Moscow believes that US threats to take sanctions in retaliation for cyberattacks are provocative and foolish and Russia will always have a proper response, the special presidential representative for international cooperation in the field of international security, Foreign Ministry’s special envoy Andrey Krutskikh has said.
"It is a competence of the Russian leadership to decide what kind of response to be made to provocations," Krutskikh said. "It is clear that no provocation will remain without retaliation. We have means of retaliation. This is no choice of ours, though, but this is an entirely different matter."
"We see all these initiatives by individual senators as a foolish and provocative act," he said. "All this is groundless. No official channels or messages addressed to us have been used."
"All this indicates that the Americans have been fanning tensions for ‘internal consumption’," Krutskhikh said. "Any other explanation do not exist, because if they were really to settle something, to clear up something, the appropriate mechanisms for this are available."
However, he stated, on the American side nobody is in the mood of toning down the hostile rhetoric.
"For how much longer they will keep their foot on the accelerator pedal and if it occurs to them they should step on the brake pedal before a sharp turn depends entirely on them," Krutskikh said. "The worst thing of all is such reckless driving brings about an abnormal political climate."
Krutskhikh pointed to the need for achieving an agreement in that field.
"Once the cyber sphere is so delicate and fraught with so many threats, it is crucial to talk to the other side, and not indulge in unilateral fault-finding and accusations the American politicians have been putting forward for the sake of attaining internal political aims,"
"As an expert on US affairs, I can make only one conclusion: Mrs. Clinton’s election campaign apparently looks too bad, so she has to distract the US public opinion to such foolish things. It is regrettable such factors may determine the American choice," Krutskikh said.