MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. Russia is ready to toughen its response if Western sanctions intensify further, however it will try to avoid any confrontation, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin said in an interview with TASS. 

"We reserve the right to toughen our special measures if the pressure of sanctions intensifies," the Russian diplomat warned. "We are ready for any scenario, even though we have been seeking to avoid the path of confrontation," he added.

The United States and the European Union are still obsessed with "stifling" sanctions on Russia, its economy and society, the Russian diplomat noted.

"The West does not hesitate to declare its so-called `sanctions’ as an instrument for changing our sovereign foreign policy course while seeking to rock the internal political situation, inflict economic damage, destabilize politics, hurt the living standards and rights of our citizens and disrupt business," Pankin said.

He criticized the use of such restrictions as "an economic war without rules" that uproots international war norms. The diplomat also said contracts were being breached in a scale that has yet to be assessed.

"In these circumstances, we are not going to demand anything from those who have been pursuing the policy of confrontation against our country. <…> We have been focusing on de-dollarization efforts, import substitution and work to strengthen our technological independence," Pankin concluded.