MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/. Moscow’s prompt and tough response to US sanctions proves that all Washington’s restrictions are aimless and baseless, Federation Council Deputy Speaker Konstantin Kosachev said.
"Today’s prompt, absolutely precise and tough response by Russia to a yet another package of US sanctions, is a solid proof that the Americans had missed [their goal], that all their insinuations have no grounds and that our country has no need to give any explanations to the Americans," Kosachev wrote on his Facebook page on Friday.
"They can search for reasons to substantiate their paranoia wherever they want, but they won’t find it at our place, because there is none. We are 100% sure that we are right, because we know the truth. And the truth is our strength," the senator added.
In his words, all anti-Russian US policies in recent years were based on "assumptions, where the highest degree of certainty is reflected by the notorious ‘highly likely.’"
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, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Yuri Ushakov, the Russian presidential aide, briefed US Ambassador in Moscow John Sullivan on Russia’s response measures to the new round of US sanctions. In particular, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov explained that the US ambassador was advised to leave for Washington for consultations. Russia will expel ten US diplomats and launch a procedure that stops the practice of hiring citizens of Russia and third countries by the US diplomatic missions in Russia.
Apart from that, the Foreign Ministry announced that Russia bars entry for eight "incumbent and former US high-ranking officials and figures, who have been involved in working out and implementing the anti-Russian policy." Among them are the US attorney general, the FBI director, the director of National Intelligence, the Secretary of Homeland Security and the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.