Washington's decision to impose restrictive measures against a number of Russian companies causes disappointment, but the sanctions bring no serious problems to Russia, Russian Foreign ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Sunday.
"Decision of the US Administration to impose restrictive measures against several Russian entities, including those in aircraft industry and pilots training, causes bewilderment and disappointment. Of course, this new portion of sanctions causes no serious troubles for us, but the United States did not even state the reason behind it, simply referring to their legislation which bans them from cooperation with Iran and Syria," Sputnik quoted Zakharova's statement published on the Ministry’s page on Facebook.
The Foreign Ministry stated that the new sanctions are clearly not meeting US security interests and disagree with Washington's statements regarding priority of fight against terrorism.
"This step does not agree with the statements heard from Washington on the priority of the ficght against terrorism, including the one that built a nest on the Syrian territory. On the contrary, it completely contradicts this line and undermines the perspectives of building a broad multilateral cooperation aimed at destroying the IS [Daesh, a terrorist organization banned in Russia and many other countries] and other terrorist groups, that pose threat to all countries, including the United States," Zakharova said.
She added that the United States "once again follows those that made it their priority to destroy cooperation between Russia and the United States", stressing that such policy clearly does not meet United States’ security interests".
The introduction of new US sanctions against Russian companies means that the anti-Russian course of Washington still continues under Donald Trump's presidency, Dmitry Novikov, the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, told Sputnik on Saturday.
"The West acts within the framework of the anti-Russian course, which it [West] has formed, and these actions mean that so far the course of [US President Donald] Trump regarding the [intended] improvement of relations with Russia, which was indicated in the pre-election period, is not yet being implemented," Novikov said.
The US sanctions imposed on a range of Russian companies will affect Russia's military-industrial complex, but they will not influence implementation of plans on enhancing defense capabilities, the deputy chair of the Russian upper house’s Arms Committee told Sputnik on Saturday.
“Frankly speaking, the sanctions’ impact on the capabilities of Russian military-industrial complex will not be positive … But we will find a way to implement our plans on strengthening defense capabilities,” Yevgeny Serebrennikov said.
