“We recommend Washington and Ottawa to consider consequences of such actions. We will be preparing response measures,” Alexander Lukashevich said, adding that US and Canadian sanctions showed the West was not interested in Ukrainian conflict settlement.
On Thursday, the US President Barack Obama signed the Ukraine Freedom Support Act, giving him the power to impose further sanctions against Russia. After the document was signed, Moscow stated that the prospects of US-Russian bilateral relations would be undermined for a long time in case new US sanctions were approved, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a telephone conversation with his US counterpart John Kerry.
The same day, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird announced the latest round of measures against Moscow, saying they include additional restrictions on the export of technology used in Russia’s oil and gas industry.
Following Crimea's reunification with Russia in March, the United States, the European Union and their allies introduced several rounds of sanctions over Moscow’s alleged involvement in the Ukrainian crisis. Russia has repeatedly denied the Western accusations and said that the sanctions run counter to the principles of international law.
