"Diplomat" Vows Moscow won’t cave into US pressure

The United States will never be able to dictate its terms to Russia by using sanctions, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov vowed in a comment published on the Foreign Ministry’s website on Friday.

On Thursday, Washington blacklisted another 33 individuals and legal entities from Russia, who are linked to its intelligence agencies and the defense industry.

"We’ve been keeping a close eye on how the US applies it sanctions against our country. This seems to have turned into some sort of national sport, with yesterday’s anti-Russian measures becoming the 60th since 2011," the diplomat said. "Every new round of sanctions shows that our enemy’s previous attempts to pressure Russia have failed to yield any result."

"Numerous US blacklists duplicate each other more and more. That’s funny, but this is true," Ryabkov pointed out.

"We see the fervor gripping US politicians, and many of them are held hostage to their beliefs about their ‘exclusiveness’ and hope that if they crank pressure up just one more notch, they will be able to dictate their terms to Russia," he elaborated.

"No one will ever be able to do this," Ryabkov assured. "The Washington operators of the sanctions machinery should learn more about our history and stop making such a big fuss over nothing," the senior diplomat suggested.

"It would be good for them to also recall the notion of global stability, which they recklessly upset by whipping up tensions in Russian-US relations," Ryabkov said, warning, "It’s foolish to play with fire, because things could get dangerous."
Washington churns out more sanctions

On Thursday, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at toughening Washington’s sanctions against Russia.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of the Treasury specified that this document gives the Secretary of the Treasury specific powers to take particular steps to further implement sanctions, and instructs other federal agencies to take all the required measures for ensuring the fulfillment of these sanctions.

Washington is not introducing any new sanctions against the blacklisted individuals or organizations, though many of them were targets of previous US restrictions.

Trump signed the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which levies tougher sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea, on August 2, 2017.