IANS | 31 Jul, 2014
The economic sanctions imposed by the United States are a
revenge on Russia, the country's foreign ministry said Wednesday.
"There is an impression that the American sanctions have only one aim --
to get even with Russia for our independent policy which is inconvenient for
the US," Xinhua quoted a ministry statement as saying.
The ministry warned that Washington will strongly feel real losses brought by
its "unsubstantiated and illegitimate" sanctions.
As the European Union (EU) approved tougher sanctions against Russia Tuesday,
US President Barack Obama also swiftly announced new penalties targeting key
sectors of Russia's economy.
Moreover, the ministry refuted as "bewildering" Obama's accusation
that Russia is not cooperating with the international investigation into
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash.
"Russia was one of the first countries that gave its objective data over
the crash, while the US has still not provided any facts, except for groundless
accusations and data collected from social networks," ministry spokesman
Alexander Lukashevich said.
He said Russia was the one to have immediately appointed its representatives in
the investigation.
Meanwhile, during his visit to Tajikistan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov Wednesday said that the Kiev authorities, as well as a number of Western
countries, have been preventing international experts from beginning their work
at the crash scene, which grossly violated the United Nations Security Council
resolution adopted July 21.