BRUSSELS, September 01. /ITAR-TASS/. The European Commission has started preparing suggestions on new sanctions against Russia, which will be presented before September 7, Commission spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen told reporters Monday.

Work on the suggestions will be finished on terms set by the EU - within a week, she said, without disclosing the measures, saying only that they will have economic consequences which have to be assessed the political and economic point of view.

Previously, Finland’s Prime Minister Alexander Stubb told ITAR-TASS the new restrictions will be set in the framework of existing sanctions. They will be imposed on the financial, arms, dual-use goods sectors and some technologies in the energy sector, he said.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry replied that the country will take new countermeasures if the Union imposes new sanctions.

“It is regrettable that the Union follows the countries interested in increasing confrontation with Russia despite interests of its member-countries,” the ministry said in a statement. “But there is still hope that the EU can look at the situation above last century’s stereotypes and will organize constructive work on settling the Ukrainian crisis.