ST. PETERSBURG, April 3. /TASS/. Russia will maintain the response measures so long as Western sanctions against Russia remain in effect, President Vladimir Putin said on Monday.

"I assume sanctions [against Russia] will not last forever but if they are everlasting, we will perpetually limit access for goods we are able to produce ourselves to our market," Putin said.

"We largely used these sanctions to make a retaliatory strike and do so that it helped us, rather than do harm to us. It is obviously helping us," the president said. "We will continue to particularly rely on this principle in future: to do everything benefiting us and try not to do anything interfering with our development," Putin said.

Putin mentioned the agricultural sector as an example, which is showing steady growth recently. "The agricultural segment is assuring very good growth rates lately - over 3%," the head of state said. Figures of federal support "are growing, rather than declining," Putin said. "We will continue to do so in future," he added.