BOCHAROV RUCHEY (SOCHI), August 9 (RIA Novosti) — No new documents expanding response measures against the West are being readied at the presidential level, as "there is no need for this," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Saturday.
"There is now no need for this," Peskov told journalists, who asked whether the president was preparing a document on additional response measures.
Kremlin spokesman stressed, however, that Russia will retaliate if the West imposes new sanctions.
"We are not the side that initiates these sanctions, we only respond to them," Peskov said.
On August 7, Russia has imposed a one-year import embargo. The ban spreads on agricultural and food product imports from the countries that have imposed sanctions on Moscow over the Ukrainian crisis, namely Australia, Canada, the European Union, the United States and Norway. The list includes meat, poultry, fish, seafood, milk, dairy products, and fruit and vegetables.
Russia’s import ban came in response to several rounds of Western sanctions against Russian businesses and officials imposed by the United States at the height of the Ukrainian crisis, who then pressed for its allies in the West to follow its lead.
Moscow said it was ready to review the terms of its import restrictions if its Western partners showed a commitment to dialogue.
