PRESS RELEASE
Russian Diplomat: New Sanctions May Destroy Prospect for Ties
July 26, 2017 (EIRNS)— Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov warned that new sanctions passed by the U.S. House of Representatives could destroy prospects for better relations between the United States and Russia.
"What is happening is beyond common sense," Ryabkov said according to TASS. "The authors and sponsors of this bill are taking a very serious step towards destruction of prospects for normalizing relations with Russia."
"We’ve said many times that these actions would be retaliated," the diplomat stressed. "I think that, despite today’s Washington unwillingness to listen and hear out anyone apart from themselves, we will eventually be heard."
"We do not give in to emotions," the Russian diplomat noted.
"We will be working to find ways of moving forward and persistently and continuously searching for a compromise on issues that are important to Russia and, I think, to the U.S. as well: the fight against terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction. There are a lot of issues, and we are ready to cooperate."
Reactions among Russian legislators echoed that of Ryabkov.
"No doubt, the expanded restrictions undermine the possibility of restoring Russian-U.S. ties and will complicate them even further in the foreseeable future. At the same time, the possibility of diplomatic maneuvers to untie this Gordian knot in the Russian-U.S. dialogue is being reduced almost to zero,"
said Leonid Slutsky, the head of the Duma Foreign Affairs Committee, reports Tass. Federation Council member Konstantin Kosachyov is quoted saying that the Russian response must be "painful" for the United STates; and his colleague, Franz Klintsevich, is reported as warning that the sanctions will make anti-terrorism cooperation much more difficult.
The president and CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia (AmCham) told Sputnik that the new U.S. sanctions are not just a mistake, but are directed at President Donald Trump and his efforts to improve ties with Russia.
"We always believed and believe that this is primarily a mistake. If you read U.S. newspapers, you will see that basically the motives given for the passage of this law are related to the president himself and less so to Russia,"
Alexis Rodzianko said today.
