Russia will retaliate if the US imposes new sanctions and will respond to any unfriendly move from Washington, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference after talks with Kazakhstan’s counterpart Mukhtar Tleuberdi on Thursday, TASS reports.
“We will take note of any unfriendly steps and this is for sure. So far, I haven’t seen any particular decisions and nothing has been declared. I’ve read the reports that the [US] administration has completed a review of Russia’s ‘hostile steps’: they somehow managed to do this rather quickly because usually when we are accused of so many misdeeds, it’s hard to deal with this in a couple of weeks or even in a couple of months, but they did. They will probably punish us in other ways,” Lavrov said.
The US administration has completed an intelligence review of Russia’s alleged election interference and the SolarWinds hack and may soon announce retaliatory actions, Bloomberg reported, citing “three people familiar with the matter.”
“Possible moves could involve sanctions and the expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in the US under diplomatic cover, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. Senior officials were expected to meet Wednesday to discuss what steps to take,” Bloomberg wrote.
The media outlet said US President Joe Biden “and his top aides will now have to weigh how hard to punish Russia while also seeking its help on priorities such as rejoining the Iran nuclear accord, restarting arms control talks and combating climate change.”
By Ana Dumbadze
