MOSCOW, March 9. /TASS/. Russia has not yet developed measures to be implemented in response to the Western sanctions, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during a briefing Wednesday.
"It is obvious that the Russophobes’ pressure in its current state does not bear desired results, the sanctions pressure is already harming its authors. I will once again underscore what I’ve said today already: Russia has not responded yet, Russia has not even developed the measures to be implemented as a response. And they have already felt it," the diplomat noted.
Meanwhile, Zakharova noted that the plans, voices by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in his initiative on establishment of the "International Ukraine Support Group," were no surprise for Moscow.
"While positioning this structure as some sort of alliance of solidarity with Ukraine on humanitarian issues, the British leadership says it directly that the associates will face such humanitarian, as they say it, goals as further pumping of the Kiev regime with weapons, increase of economic pressure on Moscow and countering of, and I quote again, ‘creeping normalization of what Russia does in Ukraine’," she added.
"Economic strangulation of our country is being openly declared as an official goal of British foreign policy. They have named and formulated what they want exactly. It is called strangulation now; previously, they came up with human rights, freedom, democracy, standards that we must adjust to but we can’t. And now everything is clear and formulated extremely succinctly: to strangle the Russian economy," the diplomat continued.
The spokeswoman expressed her hope that the Europeans will realize that such political course jeopardizes both economy and security of the region.
"We would like to hope that, sooner or later, the European leaders will realize the fact that blind following of Anglo-Saxon foreign policy commands carries direct, significant risks - not expenses but risks, and not only to regional security but, and it is obvious now, to European economic welfare and prosperity," Zakharova concluded.
On February 24, Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in Ukraine in response to a request for assistance from Donbass People’s Republics. He underscored that Russia does not plan to occupy Ukrainian territories. After that, the US, the EU, the UK and a number of other states announced sanctions against Russian citizens and companies.