Russian President Vladimir Putin's Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov says the Kremlin has resorted to sanctions against Ukraine to "encourage the normalization of bilateral relations."
"Certainly, we hope that sooner or later the political will to normalize relations with Russia will somehow produce certain sprouts on Ukrainian soil. We don't see it now," Peskov told an UNIAN correspondent in Russia on November 1, answering a question whether the Kremlin expects to change Ukraine's political position through sanctions-based pressure.
At the same time, he did not rule out that, in the event of lifting of sanctions by Ukraine against Russia, the Russian Federation could also take a similar step.
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As UNIAN reported earlier, Russia on November 1 imposed sanctions on 68 Ukrainian companies and 322 citizens.
The sanction list also includes judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, parliamentarians of the Verkhovna Rada of the 8th convocation, Ukrainian major businessmen, officials from Ukraine's Presidential Administration, heads of executive bodies and large-scale Ukrainian companies, and legal entities controlled by the Ukrainian major businessmen.
The relevant resolution issued by the government of the Russian Federation says that it "is designed to counter Ukraine's unfriendly actions towards Russian citizens and legal entities and to encourage the normalization of bilateral relations." At the same time, the government of the Russian Federation claims it reserves the right to cancel these special restrictive measures in case Ukraine cancels the sanctions imposed on Russian citizens and legal entities.
