New sanctions will put relations back to the 80s, says Medvedev
“Any sanctions have an evil purpose. They don’t help either the economy or people. They never lead to progress,” Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev left a Facebook post on Thursday. On July 16, Washington announced new sanctions that for the first time directly target Russia's banking, military, and energy sectors. The sanctions affect a range of Russian companies -- from armaments producer Kalashnikov to energy companies such as Rosneft and Novatek. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on July 17 said ‘such measures could never bring anyone to their knees.’ He added that the sanctions against Russia, Russian citizens and Russian companies are illegal because they aren’t based on the UN decisions. Medvedev warned that new sanctions will put Russian relations with the West back to the 1980s, and Russia will have "to put more emphasis on strengthening defence and security". "The so-called sectoral sanctions or the US sanctions against Russian companies operating in the military industrial complex and energy and some banks, unfortunately, will fuel further growth of anti-American and anti-European sentiment, it is absolutely obvious. We'll thus go back to the 80s in terms of relations with the countries than introduce such sanctions. This is sad. If this our partners' goal, it will be soon achieved" he stressed. “Unfortunately, these sanctions won’t help Ukraine,” the Russian Premier continued. Right after the sanctions were announced by Washington, Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters on a visit to Brazil that the sanctions "will push U.S.-Russian relations into a dead end and cause very serious damage."
