During the interview, Putin said that he expected relations between the United States and Russian Federation to worsen, and that Russa would likely come up with other measures to counter American financial sanctions, which were passed by the House and Senate last week and which President Donald Trump has said he will sign.
Late Thursday, the Senate voted 98-2 for a bill passed earlier by the House that strengthens existing sanctions on Russian Federation and gives Congress the power to block President Donald Trump from lifting them.
The White House has revealed Donald Trump will sign financial sanctions against Russian Federation which will bar him from easing the penalties.
Moscow’s retaliation, announced by the Foreign Ministry on Friday, had echoes of the Cold War.
“If the United States side decides to move further towards further deterioration we will answer, we will respond in kind”.
On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the bill aimed at targeting key Russian officials in retaliation for Moscow’s alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as sanctions against Iran and the DPRK in response to their weapons programs.
“President Donald J Trump read early drafts of the bill and negotiated regarding critical elements of it”, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a late-night statement. The statement made no reference to Russia’s retaliatory measures.
It said in a statement that the decision by Congress to impose new sanctions confirmed “the extreme aggression of the United States in global affairs”. House and Senate committees and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are examining possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russian Federation.
The Russian Foreign Ministry complained of growing anti-Russian feeling in the United States, accusing “well-known circles” of seeking “open confrontation”. “Currently, close to 1,200 employees work at the United States’ embassy and consulates in Russia, according to USA and Russian data”. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Friday that the Senate vote was the last straw.
“Hiding behind its “exceptionalism” the United States arrogantly ignores the positions and interests of other countries”, said the ministry.
Lavrov and Tillerson “agreed to maintain contact on a range of bilateral issues”, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Russian Federation had warned on Friday that it meant to expel the diplomats and to seize two properties used by U.S. diplomats.
Russia also said Friday that it’s seizing two USA diplomatic properties, much like the US shut down two Russian diplomatic compounds under the Obama Administration.
Moscow on Friday ordered the United States to slash its number of diplomats in Russian Federation to 455 and froze two embassy compounds -a Moscow summer house and a storage facility in the city -from August 1. Lawmakers say they want to prevent the president from acting on his own to lift penalties imposed by the previous administration for meddling in last year’s US election and for aggression in Ukraine.