MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/. President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to extend Russia’s counter sanctions until December 31, 2018. The document has been published on the website of legal information of the Russian authorities.

On June 29, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that the Russian government would recommend prolonging the counter-sanctions until December 31, 2018. He recalled that earlier the European Union had extended sanctions against Russia.

"In this situation, we will respond adequately, yesterday we discussed this issue with the president. The government will propose to the president that the counter measures should be extended for another year until December 31, 2018," Medvedev stated.
On June 15, during his annual televised Q&A call-in session, President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow would decide on its tit-for-tat sanctions taking into consideration relations with other countries.

"Our government has extended sanctions until December 31," he said. "We will see how our relations develop with the countries that imposed sanctions on us. As for endless expansion of sanctions, if our counterparts lift their economic sanctions, then we will do the same, since otherwise we will face issues within the World Trade Organization," Putin pointed out.