MOSCOW, June 08, /ITAR-TASS/. Sanctions imposed against Russia are illegal under all international rules and regulations. However, Russia does not deem it necessary to retaliate with sanctions at the moment though their list is ready, Valentina Matvienko, the speaker of the Russian Federation Council upper house of Russian parliament, said in the Pravo Znat (the Right to Know) programme on the TVTS television channel.
«Russia is strongly integrated in world politics and world economy. It is impossible to isolate Russia today,” Matvienko said.
«Sanctions imposed against Russia are illegal under all international rules and regulations. It is only the United Nations that can impose these sanctions,” the Federation Council speaker went on to say.
«However, time may come when we are forced to retaliate,” Matvienko noted, adding she did not want such a scenario to take place.
«Most European countries are interested in cooperation with Russia, especially in the economic sphere. Russia’s trade turnover with European countries is valued at 450 billion dollars. This is a very weighty argument in favor further cooperation with Russia,” Matvienko said.
Asked how the U. S and EU targeted sanctions had affected her life, Matvienko replied that nothing had actually changed in her life. «It remains as active as it used to be,” she said. However, Matvienko considers sanctions against politicians, the speakers of the upper and lower chambers of parliament, to be overkill.
«No one afforded that even in the Cold War years. I believe it is a mistake, which reflects weakness rather than strength. I am convinced that this situation is temporary,” Matvienko said.
Meanwhile, she believes that the Kiev authorities will take the first step towards negotiations with Ukraine’s southeast regions as soon as they end the security operation.
”As soon as Kiev gives an order to cease fire and end the punitive operation against peaceful civilians in southeast Ukraine, Russia is ready to do everything to persuade the other side to lay down arms and sit down to talks,” Matvienko went on to say.
«A lean compromise is always better than a fat lawsuit; there can be no military solution to the conflict in southeast Ukraine,” she emphasized.
Matvienko said that Russia’s decision to return its Ambassador Mikhail Zurabov to Kiev was a good sign for the Kiev authorities.
«It is a gesture of good will and a positive message for the Kiev authorities,” the Federation Council speaker said.
Commenting on intention of Ukraine’s President Pytor Poroshenko who was inaugurated on June 7 to discuss a way out of the Ukraine crisis exclusively with the European Union and the United States, Matvienko noted that without Russia Ukraine was unlikely to overcome its political and economic crisis.