MOSCOW, June 18. /TASS/. Moscow will take effective and harsh retaliatory measures to the illegal anti-Russian sanctions adopted by the European Union on June 15, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

The diplomat noted at the briefing that these were restrictions against several Russian individuals, and some local and foreign companies.

"They [in the EU] don't notice how ineffective and, it seems to me, self-exposing all these sanctions pressure measures are for them. For some reason they don't understand that they are harming themselves first of all, and the world, because all their talk about how they care about the fate of the world, food and energy security are being shattered by these very sanctions, which they are now taking not only against Russians, Russia, and Russian companies, but also against representatives of other countries," she said.

"As a matter of fact, we have already talked about this regularly, and an effective tough response will follow from our side."