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Not a single round of US sanctions to go unanswered, says Moscow

The Foreign Ministry stressed that "it is high time the United States demonstrates wisdom and drop its confrontational policy"

MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/. Not a single round of US anti-Russian sanctions will remain unanswered, the Russian foreign ministry said on Friday.

"The reality is that what we hear from Washington differs from what we actually see. There should be no doubts: not a single sanction ‘wave’ will go unanswered," it said.

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Russia to permanently ban entry for eight US officials

The ministry stressed that "it is high time the United States demonstrates wisdom and drop its confrontational policy." Otherwise, according to the ministry, Russia will have to take a set of solutions, sensitive to the US side, such as "obliging US missions to reduce their personnel in Russia to 300."

"It will be a real parity in terms of overseas missions personnel as the quota of 455 Russian personnel in the United States includes 155 people commissioned to our mission to the United Nations in New York. And this is not a bilateral mission," the ministry stressed.

According to the ministry, there are other options as well. The ministry noted that Moscow is aware that its possibilities to "pinch" the US economically are limited. "But we do have a certain resource in these terms and it will also be used if Washington opts to follow the sanction spiral," it noted.

"This is not our choice. We want to avoid further escalations with the United States. We are ready for a calm and professional dialogue with the American side to look for ways of normalizing bilateral ties," the ministry stressed.

The ministry added that it took notice of US President Joe Biden’s statement that the US side was interested in stable, constructive and predictable relations with Russia, including the initiative about a Russian-US summit. "This initiative was taken positively and is now being looked at in the context of the current situation," it noted.

US President Joe Biden on Thursday signed an executive order imposing anti-Russian sanctions. Thus, US companies cannot buy Russian debt securities issues by the Central Bank, the National Welfare Fund or the finance ministry after June 14, 2021. Sanctions were slapped on 16 legal entities and 16 individuals allegedly involved in meddling with the US elections. Eight individuals and legal entities were blacklisted for operation in Crimea. Apart from that, the United States is expelling ten Russian diplomats from the Russian embassy in Washington, with "representatives of Russian intelligence services" among them, as the US side claims.

On Friday, Russian president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that Ushakov had informed the US ambassador to Moscow about Russia’s steps in response to the US new sanctions.

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