MOSCOW, January 31. /TASS/. Washington is proving itself to be fickle partner due to its contradictory remarks on the links between the 'Kremlin List' and anti-Russian sanctions, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.
"Unfortunately, we are dealing with a rather unpredictable counterpart, there are a lot of contradictions and unpredictability in the steps of [the United States]," Peskov told reporters.
While the US Treasury Department stresses that the document is not a sanctions list, later "official statements are made that this is the beginning of sanctions and then there are incompatible words and so on," Peskov pointed out.
"Unfortunately, we are dealing with unpredictable partners, and certainly, amid this unpredictability we need to stay focused and act in line with the understanding of what we want," Peskov said, explaining that Russia needs to do what "meets its own interests."
Commenting on US media reports that the document’s text had been changed at the very last moment, Peskov said it was not Russia’s responsibility to speculate on this. He also recalled Russian President Vladimir Putin’s remark that this list was an "unfriendly and hostile act" towards Russia.
On Monday, the US Treasury Department published the unclassified portion of its "Kremlin List" that includes all members of the Russian government and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the leadership of the presidential administration and the heads of state corporations and banks, along with businessmen having a net worth of $1 billion or more.
The list, which contains 210 names, is divided into several sections - the presidential administration, the cabinet of ministers, as well as "political leaders" and "oligarchs." The US Treasury Department claims that is not a sanctions list and no restrictions are being slapped on those mentioned in the document.
Thaw expectations
Peskov believes that "expectations for any thaw prospects" are utterly out of place given the current climate of Russian-US relations.
"Regrettably, such terms as ‘thaw’ or ‘thaw prospects’ are in total disagreement with the current background of Russian-US relations," he said, when asked if it was possible to say in the wake of the US president’s annual State of the Union one can expect some thaw in relations between Moscow and Washington.
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday evening made his first State of the Union address at a joint meeting of the Senate and the House of Representatives in which he dwelt on domestic and foreign policy priorities of his administration. He reviewed the successes that his team had achieved during the first year in office. In his statement, Trump mentioned Russia just once. He described it together with China as US adversaries.