Russia says it will respond firmly to new U.S. sanctions

Moscow said on Friday it would respond firmly to new U.S. sanctions imposed against Russian businessmen, companies and government officials for what Washington called “malign activity” including alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, APA reports quoting Reuters.

The sanctions freeze the U.S. assets of “oligarchs” such as aluminum tycoon Oleg Deripaska, a close associate of President Vladimir Putin, and lawmaker Suleiman Kerimov, whose family controls Russia’s largest gold producer, Polyus.

“Of course we will not leave this current and any new anti-Russian attack without a harsh answer,” Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “But first of all we would like to recommend that Washington discard illusions that we can be spoken to in the language of sanctions.”

The ministry said no pressure could make Russia change course and that the sanctions would only unite Russian society.