President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin talk during the APEC Summit in Danang, Vietnam, on Nov. 11. (Jorge Silva/Reuters)
On April 6, the US imposed new sanctions against 38 Russian individuals and entities, according to a list published by the US Treasury Department.
The list includes such personalities as the Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, the head of the National Guard Service (Rosgvardiya) Viktor Zolotov, the ex-FSB head Nikolay Patrushev, the billionaire and aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska and Alexey Miller, head of Russian defense corporation Rosoboronexport.
Commenting on the move, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin accused Russia of “a range of malign activity around the globe”.
In return, the Chairperson of the Council of the Federation Committee on Foreign Affairs Konstantin Kosachev described this US action as “another unsustained, unfriendly and meaningless step. The attempt to justify the absence of real strategy and to prove allegedly existing legality of the [US] actions towards Russia.”
On April 5, during the Republican annual retreat dinner, the US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley claimed:
“Russia is not our friend.”
“Russia will not be our friend as long as their government has the values that it has, and as long as it conducts itself the way it does internationally.”
Earlier, On February 2, Haley affirmed that Washington would keep its hard stance “until Russia starts to act like a responsible country.”
Russia says the US restrictions won’t influence the Russian international stance. However, the deterioration in the relations between these two global powers seems to develop further.
