REUTERS
The U.S. and the EU will only tighten their sanctions against Russia regardless of the situation in eastern Ukraine, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday, according to Russian business news agency Prime.
"We think that on various directions, regardless of what is going on in Donbas, we should wait for a further tightening of the sanctions pressure," Ryabkov said, according to Prime.
Western sanctions against Russia have been introduced for a long time and there is no ground to believe that they will be lifted in the short-term, he said.
"We all should assume that the sanctions are for long. We have no illusions here at the Foreign Ministry that they will be abolished or significantly eased in the near future," Ryabkov said.
Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said that Russia will look for symmetrical retaliatory measures in response to the new U.S. sanctions.
"These sanctions are of a personal character, they are targeted at individuals and companies and do not have a sectoral character, that’s why I think we will be looking for some symmetrical response here," Ulyukayev said.
In early September, the U.S. included 29 more Russian companies on its black list over a political crisis in Ukraine and several more defense firms, including Rosoboronexport, because of contracts with Syria, Iran and North Korea.