MOSCOW, March 1. /TASS/. Russia has a history of confronting aggressive actions against itself but now they have acquired an ultra-concentrated character, with masks slipped, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told France Info radio station earlier that the European Union countries plan to embark on a "total economic war" against Russia.

"This is not the first statement of the kind. Yes, now these aggressive actions against our country have ultra-concentrated character, but there have been such actions before," Peskov said, commenting on these pronouncements.

Such actions used to be unnoticed by the general public but specialists were fully aware of all the discriminatory measures and unfair competition, he noted. "But now everything is utterly concentrated. Or, so to say, masks have slipped," he added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories.

Following this step, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and several other countries announced sanctions against Russian individuals and legal entities.

On February 26, the European Council banned access to the European market of capital for the Russian government, the Central Bank, Alfa-Bank, Otkritie FC Bank, Rossiya Bank, Promsvyazbank and other financial institutions from April 12 due to Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine. They are banned from floating, selling or using in any other way securities and other loan instruments issued after April 12, 2022.