MOSCOW, August 23. /TASS/. Moscow begins to consider a response to the expansion of anti-Russian sanctions by the US, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in a commentary on Tuesday.
The Foreign Ministry uploaded the commentary at its official homepage.
On August 22, the US Department of the Treasury endorsed an expansion of the sanction blacklist against Russia, adding four individuals and a company to it.
"Washington has stepped on the same rake again," Ryabkov said. "This time, on the subject of North Korea. The trend towards persistent destruction of bilateral relations, initiated by the Obama administration has been carried on."
"It’s the fourth such escapade since the arrival of the new team in the White House," he said.
"Still we haven't abandaoned hope that the voice of reason will prevail over time and our US peers will recognize the fruitlessness and detriment of any further unwinding of the spiral of sanctions," Ryabkov said. "Nonetheless, we get down to business on hammering out an inevitable response in this situation."
Against this background, the US officials’ speculations on the willingness to stabilize bilateral relations sound highly unconvincingly," he said. "It is worthwhile recalling, though, they explained the adoption of the notorious anti-Russian act earlier by the same willingness to attain better relations with Russia."
Ryabkov stressed Moscow’s persistent line at settling all the outstanding contradictions through dialogue.
"In theory, Washington should have learned in the past years that we do not accept the language of sanctions, since actions in that vein only impede the solution of real problems," he said. "But it looks like they have failed to grasp such obvious truths for the time being."
On Tuesday, the US expanded its sanction blacklist against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, adding the Moscow-based Gefest group of companies in them. The restrictions embraced its Director General Ruben Kirakosian.
Also, Washington has put on the list Andrei Serbin and Mikhail Pisklin, who ran for a seat at the Vladivostok city hall in 2012 on the party cause of the Right Cause liberal party.
Irina Hewish, the executive director of Velmur Management company based in Singapore became the fourth individual on the list.