MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/. Russian State Duma lower house Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin explains sanctions against Russia by its successful development.

"We have started developing, that’s what this antagonism is about. If we were not developing, but degenerating, if we were not getting stronger, nobody would have applied these sanctions," Volodin told Rossiya 24 television. "Sanctions are slapped on those who are getting stronger, more successful," the speaker said.

"All pressure and all sanctions have one and the same aim - to prevent Russia from developing and gaining the influence it presently has in the world," he added. Volodin said the US "got used to ruling the world alone, they favor a unipolar world, and now a country emerges that can voice its point of view and begins to be factored in," Volodin said.

He cited colleagues from different countries as saying "At last Russia is playing the role we have been waiting for so long, it can assume this position and it will keep to its standpoint which is alternative." "It is very topical," he confirmed.

On April 6, the United States imposed sanctions on 38 Russian individuals and legal entities, including Russia’s biggest arms trader Rosobornexport, Russian Financial Corporation and Rusal. The move was motivated by Crimea’s reunification with Russia, instigation of hostilities in eastern Ukraine, support to the Bashar Assad regime in Syria and illegal activities in the cyber space. The Russian foreign ministry pledged Russia would not leave these sanctions unanswered.

On Friday, a bill on response measures to the unfriendly actions by the United States and/or other foreign states was put on the State Duma’s (lower parliament house) agenda. The bill provides for a ban or restrictions on imports farming products, raw materials and food, tobaccos and alcohol originating from the United States and/or other unfriendly countries. The ban is applicable to medicines, with a reservation that it does not cover medicines with no Russia-manufactures analogues. Russia’s countersanction will cover consulting and audit companies with foreign capital accounting for more than 25% Such companies will be banned to offer their services to Russian government companies. Apart from that, companies with the United States’ controlling more than 25% of authorized capital will be denied access to privatization of property. The bill will have its first reading on May 15.