Russia won’t tolerate US ‘blackmail’ on Ukraine

MOSCOW, Russia – Russia on Thursday, July 17, condemned what it called US “blackmail” after Washington imposed sanctions on its energy giants Rosneft and OA Novatek over Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.

“We do not intend to tolerate blackmail and reserve the right to take retaliatory measures,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a furious statement.

President Vladimir Putin has already commented on the sanctions, saying in Brazil that the sanctions “are inflicting very serious damage” on US-Russia relations.

In its latest statement, Moscow accused the United States of “a primitive attempt to take revenge for the fact that events in Ukraine are developing differently from Washington’s scenario.”

It said that US support for the Ukrainian leadership as it deploys heavy firepower against rebels in fact “is provoking bloodshed”.

Russia said the United States was using a “sanctions bludgeon” and warned that the measures against its energy firms would not be effective.

“We have said many times that speaking in the language of sanctions, whatever their scale, with Russia is useless,” the ministry said.

“This route does not lead to anything good. That goes for encroaching on the assets of Russian companies too,” the ministry said, adding that Washington’s strategy will lead to its “bitter disappointment”.

The sanctions will “inevitably have an effect on our ability to cooperate in many other spheres,” the ministry warned. – Rappler.com