Russia will respond to US sanctions without damaging itself: FM Lavrov

MOSCOW, Dec 23, 2019, TASS. Moscow will retaliate against Washington’s sanctions without hurting itself, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Bolshaya Igra (Big Game) program on Russia’s television Channel One, TASS reported.

“We will respond to sanctions but in a way not to hurt ourselves. But we will definitely respond. And we will certainly take this into account when building our relations,” Lavrov said.

Russia’s top diplomat noted that he had never thought that US politicians would go that far to slap these decisions, which do no credit to serious political actors. “I find it very hard to understand the situation because I either knew indirectly or directly the majority of these Congressmen, members of the House of Representatives, Senators, mostly from the Democratic Party,” Lavrov said.

The US Congress approved the National Defense Authorization Act for 2020 fiscal year (started October 1) that requires the US administration to introduce sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream Russian gas pipelines. On December 11, the House of Representatives backed the document, while US President Donald Trump signed it into force on Friday.