MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russia should respond to the new US sanctions tit-for-tat, Russian Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the United States extended its anti-Russian sanctions using the Ukraine crisis as a pretext by targeting 34 individuals and entities, the US Treasury Department said in a press release.
“I think that this is normal procedure to symmetrically respond in such cases if there are unfriendly actions by some country, then there is usually a response, so it would be normal for there to be some sort of a reaction,” Ulyukayev told journalists.
The Russian minister added that the US sanctions would not affect Russia's economy and are simply a politically motivated decision.
The United States, the European Union and their allies imposed several rounds of sanctions on Russia in 2014.